any good sources on conure behavior/body language?

[TurquoiseMel]

By this I mean websites or books specifically on conure behavior.
The reason I ask is I see my birds displaying behaviors sometimes n I have no idea what they mean. I could guess, but it'd still be just a guess.
It probably bothers me because all my life I've had cats, I can read their body language. A few years ago I got my first dog and I now work with dogs so I can read them pretty well too. But my birds, half the time I have no idea what they're doing.

Some examples:
They parade around on top of their cage sometimes. Stretching out their necks making a repetitive loud chirping and sway from side to side . If one starts the other one chimes in. If you get near them during this they'll lunge at you!

Loqui sometimes puts his feet on Lila. I think it might be a dominance thing.. or it could be a playful thing. At times this foot thing will turn into them wrestling with each other (playing of course ). Other times it'll turn into a quick leave-me-alone type of fight and it's over.

There's many more behaviors I catch that I can't really explain that I can't think of right now but you get what I mean.

I'd be nice to be able to read them. Especially since Loqui has been a little testy lately and I sometimes can't really tell when he will bite or not. Like right now as I type this he came to me asking for pets. I petted his head and then left him alone. then he climbs down my leg to my toes (I'm laying down) and wiggles his head like he does when he's happy then out of nowhere he fluffs up and lunged at my foot and bit me pretty hard. I of course screamed and jerked my foot involuntarily and he flew away.

He just turned one year last month. Could it be hormones?? But Lila is just a few days younger than him and she's not nearly as nippy. Keep in mind these he's and she's are all in my head I really have no idea of the sex of either of them lol.

 

[Mudkips]

It sounds like you're doing well so far.

Whenever my GCC is trying to get my attention and I'm not 100% on what his body language means, I will ether ignore him -or- pick up his favorite small toy (in this case, a coke bottle cap) and tap it quickly against the table/side of his cage within 20cm of him.

He will ether charge at the bottle cap and release a torrent of his rage upon it, or he will totally ignore it which means he just wants to be with me for scratches and cuddles.

Other times it'll turn into a quick leave-me-alone type of fight and it's over.

Study the body language during these 'fights'.
Yes, including the "stop it!" squeal.

For anyone that doesn't know what I mean, it happens at the 4 second mark of this video:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4JDrKV1t9Y"]Green Cheek & Pineapple Conure Fight Love - YouTube[/ame]

It's not a widespread or well known method, but when my GGC randomly bites me, I use this exact same body language and he stops biting immediately.
Clearly it doesn't involve inflicting any kind of pain or oppressive punishment, and it doesn't affect a good friendship!
It's a proven method amongst birds, so I don't know why other people don't use it on their birds too.

Hope this helps!

 

[TurquoiseMel]

Thanks, yea I try lol. I've seen that video before that squealing "leave me alone" is exactly what I'm talkin about lol. Maybe I'll make videos of what my birds do & post them. I think I get most of what they do but somethings are just like ????!

For example shortly after posting this actually I walk into my room while on the phone and sit down, both birds are hanging out on the door frame and Loqui literally OUT OF NOWHERE flies straight over to my head, reaches down and bites me HARD on the nose!! & I just..... I don't know what in the world I could've done to provoke that. And granted, I wasn't paying much attention in that instance, but I normally am not when they're in my room playing I kind of just let them be..so it's not like I did anything out of the ordinary, you know.
Like I said I just don't get it..... /:

 

[Mudkips]

There's a good chance Loqui was bored sitting up on the door, saw you come into the room and was happy to see you. It sounded like he just wanted to come over to say hi and play a game.*
That's the problem with only ignoring a parrot when he bites you: He will never learn the difference between a bite that hurts and a bite that doesn't hurt.

When I first got my GCC he would only ever bite softly. After 2 months he began to bite harder and harder till it got really painful. At first I ignored him, but it didn't work well at all for me.
One day while giving him head scratchies, I noticed that when I hit a pin feather he would do that "Stop it!" squeal. I figured that moving a pin feather would feel rather like getting nipped on the skin by a beak, so I decided to copy that squeal whenever he bit me really hard.
It worked really well, within a week or two he had learned what hurts me and what doesn't. Now the hardest he bites me is when he climbs up onto my hand, and he never bites me past my pain threshold (even when I'm playing finger games with him).

* I could be wrong and he just came over to make you be quiet lol.



ALSO...
I'm guessing that this is what you mean by 'stretching out their necks and swaying from side to side' (Watch from about 40 seconds into the video)
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFzXfThZ6Tc&t=00m40s"]チビ 【シャドーボクシング？】（HD） - YouTube[/ame]

It's very common in conures and other parrots too.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8LBnZOjHqA"]umbrella cockatoo going mad in kitchen floor. - YouTube[/ame]

Whenever they do it they have lots of energy and they seem to be annoyed about something. They are easily distracted and you can make them chase something like a bottle cap or a ping pong ball instead of your fingers. Some people call this demon mode.
When they use up all their energy, they return to normal.