Strange Behavior

[LoveMyConlan]

My 11 month old female Gcc has started doing something odd recently. She'll hop down onto the cage floor, to the newspaper, lean forward so her chest and beak are touching the ground, and then walk forward sliding her body across the paper. Then she'll do the same thing but 'scratch' with her beak.

What the heck is she doing? She only does this at night? She's not destroying the newspaper either.

 

[Flboy]

Both our JoJo and Bongo do the same! No idea!

 

[PickleMeDickles]

Pickles (GCC) does the same thing. I searched the entire internet and the best I could gather is that is is some kind of marking or postural behavior. My bird is definitely a female if that helps. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it was also mentioned by several sources that it is believed that birds see certain light spectrums that we don't and they may be "marking" their territory. Anyone else have a clue?

 

[MonicaMc]

They might just enjoy the way it feels?


Charlie, my mitred, once put his beak down on the top of a big TV (the old TV types that are difficult to move due to their size and weight) and would run across the top of it.


I heard one bird enjoyed putting his beak against the wall when the bird's owner would go up or down the stairs.


Birds do have sensitive beaks so the vibration or feel might be enjoyable? My first conure liked to (slow) tap and "huff" on hard surfaces. My current conures do (fast) tapping and swiping on hard surfaces, including their cages. At times, I can even copy them and they'll do the behavior back at me after I "copy" them.


I expect it's some form of communication.

 

[Mimsy01]

Foo does this when she is either excited or when being aggressive. When aggressive she will charge with her beak dragging. When she is really proud of herself, like learning to fly to a new spot, or stole a treat off my table she wasn't supposed to get..she'll do a beak drag and then maybe bang it against the table a time or two.

 

[Kyoto]

Yep my GCC does this too, generally as a territorial thing. Particularly by the door to the room when the cat stands outside of it teasing her. She does not like him there.

 

[Altum]

Foggy will do this along his perches! He will scramble down the side of the cage and press himself to the perch as he slides along to wherever he's going.

I generally think of it as "slinking"; he looks like a little lizard scuttling along a branch. When he wipes his beak back and forth as he does it I always thought he was trying to smell for anything out of place, but that's 100% guesswork.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

During playtime Gilbert does this sometimes too. I consider it his 'trench digging' activity, because he looks like he wants to turn into a piece of landscaping equipment with the stance and running forward with the beak down like he is plowing through something, not just running across newspaper.

 

[JellyBean]

Yep, My little JellyBean does the same thing with his beak around the circumference of the bath - when I am having one - I think it is totally cute!!