Occasional Wing Flapping

trimblegirls

Member
Dec 30, 2016
183
1
Northern CA
Parrots
African Grey: Jasper
Blue and Gold Macaw: Lulu
Eclectus: Pickles
I was reading another post about Ekkies which got me to thinking about Tillie.

"Too much nutrients of one thing can very quickly lead to toe tapping and wing flapping which can be very annoying to an Ekkie"

Sometimes when she would snuggle down to be petted, one of her wings would flap up. Almost like a twitch. It would flap every now and then, maybe 4 or 5 times total. I thought it was because I got "a good spot" as I was scratching her neck. Ya know, like a dog scratches with her leg when they get a little ticklish from being petted. She hasn't done it in a while, well because she's so darn hormonal lately it's hard to pet her. I'm glad I can still give her shoulder rides.

Just wondering...
 
Not sure if this applies to ekkies, but I do know Skittles does wing flapping.

Sometimes in his sleep cage, he will be at the bottom and back into a corner and just rapidly flap his wings. I don't know why he does it, but I've never paid any mind to it either. I do know he has these 'wing spasms' from time to time especially his left wing. The vet did a complete blood work panel when I first got him and noticed he was doing that and the blood work came back fine. She's also done wing exams on him too and found nothing out of the ordinary. I contacted his breeder and she told me him doing that is a 'sign of contentment', which makes sense given when he does that. Not sure why he favors that wing for 'wingpit scratches', but he just does.

Anyways, not sure if that's any help- just thought I'd share my experiences with wing flapping.
 
With Lincoln he doesn't normally toe tap or wing flap unless he's relaxed / sleeping. If your bird is active and being productive it's unlikely wing flapping. Here's an example of unusual behavior from Lincoln which was though to be an odd case of wing flapping. It turns out it wasn't wing flapping but still not sure what it is. My theory is he just wants to fly.
[ame="https://youtu.be/gjwI6u6KlKA"]Questionable behaviour - YouTube[/ame]

Here's a video on wing flapping and toe tapping
[ame="https://youtu.be/PxUMv1g87Kc"]Eclectus - Toe Tapping / Wing Flipping - YouTube[/ame]


I haven't heard of the behaviour expressed in anything other than ekkies but it could be a possibility.
 
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Truth of the matter is parrots are a very complex and expressive species and I don't think we'll ever fully understand why they do some of things they do. That's one of the things that makes them so fascinating, you are forever trying to understand them and rather than cooperate with us they just order us around and play mind games with us and we buy into every time. But really, would we want it any other way?

Of course any behavior that appears harmful or may indicate injury or illness should be dealt with promptly by a vet.
 

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