When your pet bird uses its mouth on you, you may just be being “beaked” rather than bitten. Birds use their beaks much like feet do – to grasp items and maintain balance; “beaking” is the correct term. It is important to distinguish between beaking and biting so you can provide appropriate responses when your bird actually gives you a true bite.
Reasons Why Birds “Beak” You
There can be several reasons for why a bird might “beak” at you instead of offering an actual bite. First, pet birds use their beaks as third hands when testing out new perches or checking physical rigidity before climbing structures like their owner’s hand are used as perches; new bird owners often misinterpret this exploratory use as being bite.
Bird tongues contain nerve endings to sense taste and texture; therefore if you wear unfamiliar clothing or hold new apparatus in your hand, their beak could help their tongue evaluate these items that are new in its world.
Beaking may not be a pleasant experience, but it does differ significantly from being directly attacked by birds. Instead, being beaked can feel more like the bird using you as a stabilizing anchor point as they shift position or collect new information about its environment.
Birds do bite occasionally, but usually only when startled or cornered and feeling threatened. Your bird is probably not trying to be aggressive; biting among wild birds usually serves only as an act of self-defense and not as any type of social correction signal or punishment mechanism.
True bird bites tend to be sudden and strong. Accompanied by “ruffled feathers” body language that suggests more space is required by the bird, they may bite back hard enough that it breaks skin or at least leaves an injury that marks it as being different than beak attacks. Such small injuries provide a good indicator that something else has taken place: either being beaked upon, bitten upon, or both!
Responses to Beaking
One way your bird could learn to beak you more frequently is if you let out a high pitched yell when being beaked; this is particularly relevant with young birds who may still be developing social norms1.
Birds, particularly parrots, tend to interpret your sounds as positive comments and reinforcers rather than protests; socializing them requires using high vocal tones as approval signals and low vocal tones as discouragements for undesirable behavior. In this way, socialization of birds resembles that of socializing puppies: use higher tones for approval while lower ones as discouragement signals.
Once you know which kind of beak use is occurring most frequently, it should be easier to alter both situations. Understandably, beaking is part of owning any bird; but if its beak use is becoming problematic for your own clothing and skin then use wrist perches, leather arm covers or vests as additional layers of protection from its beak use.
If youre being attacked by a bird, different actions should be taken in response. There are steps available to put their mind at ease and stop this behaviour from becoming dangerous or unwanted.
Correct Any True Biting When correcting bad behavior in birds, try not to become overexcited or vocalize loudly. Instead, use frowning and body language that shows you are unhappy, while speaking calmly but softly in low tones so your bird understands this behavior is unacceptable and place them back into its cage or perch immediately afterwards.
As you assess what could have led your bird to bite, provide it with some “time out.” Do this by leaving the room or withdrawing completely so as to limit eye contact from you; after 10 minutes have passed from this timeout period, resume positive interactions so they can show you they have learned how to control themselves better.
Inform any guests of your bird’s normal beaking at certain points and not reacting emotionally or vocally; this will prevent your bird from feeling threatened enough by an unfamiliar guest to bite.
Important note: Young children may not be mature enough to respond appropriately when exposed to birds. Soft skin can easily be cut or injured by bites or normal beaking, so proceed with caution when your bird is near young guests.