Ambiguous body language (greenwing)

[Screech]

I'm thinking this is a result of Beaker spending (I think) four out of five years of his life with a previous owner and some developed habits, but it has me stumped. In the morning when he first sees me he will raise his wings behind his head while fluffing his feathers up and lowering his head. It looks like a threatening behavior, but he will have his eyes partially closed and half of the time he will let me give him scratches (serious scratches of the neck or under-wing!) or he will back away or lunge when I get close with my hand.

Sometimes when he is getting medium intensity head scratches on my arm he will do the same gesture, except give me a half hug with his wing. This is either accompanied by a light nip and a glare or things start to get really cuddly.

Both nips and cuddly attitude in this situation have the exact same appearance feathers up, head down and sideways, and wings extended up and back, but just don't see what he's trying to get at.

 

[Heisenburd]

It sounds to me like he stretching or releasing tension. I know a lot of parrots stretch their wings upwards, or one out with a foot when they are greeting you. There way of saying; 'alright, I'm ready for some attention.' Mine have always done it when they see me come into the room.

 

[strudel]

My bird sticks her wings back and puts her mohawk up in the morning. I taught her to do "wings" while trying to get her to accept a harness. Now she automatically does it first thing because I tell her she's clever and she gets approval/attention for it. It's part of her "schtick". I did manage to induce that behaviour, wrong or right. Maybe the previous owner had done something similar?