Can you address the topic of unusually dangerous birds? I don't mean ones that bite when you invade their space, but ones that attack! I bought a lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo from a man whose wife was afraid of the bird. It flew at her head several times. I allow him out under supervision, and most of the time he seems like a gentle, curious little clown, but sometimes something sets him off.

I have had this character for four years, so he has certainly had time to adjust to me. I am retired and live alone so there is no one tormenting him. I have one other bird, an African grey that I have had for twenty years. They both get the same general care and attention.

-- L. Lorraine Lyons, gildedcage@prcn.org

In captivity, parrots often bond with one person and become aggressive toward all others. You mentioned that you live alone, so another person is not likely the factor here, unless you have a frequent visitor whom your bird is fond of. It is possible that your cockatoo has developed a bond with your African grey, even though they are not housed together.

It is also possible that your bird's past home life has something to do with the problem you’re having with him now. If he was bonded to the husband and chronically aggressive toward the wife, he probably developed a habit of attacking her. Aggressiveness is self-reinforcing: Every time birds attack, the release of energy and emotion satisfies their urge and reinforces the behavior. If he has frustrations in his current home with you, his past experience may have taught him to use aggression to release pent-up energy and emotion.

I generally like to let people decide for themselves whether they want to clip a bird's wings. It's a decision you should base on what you think your bird will gain from it and how willing you are to monitor him. In your case, clipping obviously will disable your cockatoo's attack strategy and might lead to a decrease in his aggressiveness as he realizes it's not paying off.

Another approach may be to separate the cockatoo from the African grey, whose territory he might be helping to protect. A few days or weeks of separation may bring improvements in the cockatoo's behavior and might even strengthen your bond with him. However, if you reunite the two birds later, they will probably team up again.

A word about aggressive cockatoos here. They should be taken very seriously. My lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo, Pogo, has the fiercest bite of any parrot I have ever seen. I know the look in his eye when something inside him turns him into a little monster. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often. But when he does bite, he bites with malice.

Your story reminds me of what challenging pets parrots can be. We all know their bites can inflict serious harm, yet we choose to keep these creatures in our homes with little understanding of what drives most of their behavior.

Parrots are more alien to humans than perhaps any other animal kept as pets. We struggle daily to understand their actions, moods, body language, needs and desires. At best, we can make a feeble anthropomorphic attempt at trying to find some rationale. We search for easy answers to complex questions.

Unfortunately, even our questions lack the insights required to unlock most of the mysteries these magnificent creatures hold. The fact remains that parrots will always be challenging pets, and biting is part of the package.

ParrotChronicles.com

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