Do all birds yawn when we rub their ears?

[kaka]

When my birds are being petted and I gently touch their ears, they always yawn.

But when they are not in the right mood (i.e. playtime mood or attentive to something else) they don't do that. What does the yawn mean in this case? Is it a simple reaction or are they enjoying the moment?

And do you birds yawn in this same sittuation?

2 of my baby birdies yawning. Both are just sleepy, but I think that they are soooo cute when they do that?

 

[LunaLove]

I dont have an answer but my lovebird yawns also and I just wanted to say these pics are sooooooo cute! I love love love that first one what a great shot!!!!

 

[artgeek09]

Donnie will yawn without fail, and often 5,6,7 times in a row. I'm not sure why though. Such awesome pictures!!

 

[ortegah]

Yes because ears are connected to sinuses. It works with dogs too!

 

[kaka]

Yes because ears are connected to sinuses. It works with dogs too!

I didn't know about that, thanks! I'll keep doing that because it's so •••• cute and it always seems that they're enjoying the moment.

 

[tozie12]

all mine do it. as a matter of fact, when ollie rubs his OWN head he makes himself yawn!

 

[roxynoodle]

Merlin even yawns when she is petting her own throat.

 

[kaka]

One of my lovebirds does that too. So far I haven't see any other lovebirds doing that.

He only does that when he's inside the cage and it's such a private moment for him. If someones gets too close to the cage, he stops.

Few weeks ago I managed to run to the other room to catch the camera and made a video using the zoom.

 

[Macawnutz]

Maui will yawn 20 times without intermission

Korbel you have to rub both ears to get him to do it.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Baylee does it too lol

 

[JAM]

All of our FIDs do it and also do it to themselves. When doing the ear scritch it makes them stretch their neck forward, open their beak and stick their to tongue out as far as possible.

 

[kaka]

Is this your lovie? What a cutie!

Baylee does it too lol

 

[kaka]

So, this is definitely a birdie behaviour!

Hahaha, I must confess that when I was searching for pictures with them yawning, I yanwned too when I looked to the first picture.

 

[Bokkapooh]

Mine do

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Is this your lovie? What a cutie!

Yes she is my baby

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

It is a physiological response to touching the ears and anterior throat area; you disturb the air pressure inside the head and pharnyx (spelled wrong). The birds then yawn to try and get a rebalance to the air pressure inside and outside. You can do it to yourself and feel yourself need to yawn pressing inward with your thumbs in your ears.. I am very careful when I have to work around my birds' ears and nares as it is easy to accidently push a seed or seed hull or a peice of feather into the sinuses or ears. That can lead to a sinus infection forming around the foreign object and all sorts of problems.

I had a budgie who had a sneezing episode once that produced one of those tiny body contour feathers and a small puddle of foul smelling mucous ultimately the size of a four millimeter bead. My vet flushed her nasal passages the next day and got even more foul mucous and said the bird must have inhaled the shed feather and gotten an infection around it. Dr Stern said occult nasal infections are very life threatening to small birds and any time a bird has nasal discharge to have it checked out immediately. It is one of the things I am always on the watch for with my birds.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

All of this yawning talk made me yawn.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

My Apple does this too.

 

[Cyreen]

The birds then yawn to try and get a rebalance to the air pressure inside and outside.

Very much like yawning when going up in an elevator.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

The human yawn response is not only for physiological control over the air pressure in our head, but also a behavioral/aggressive trigger from our primate ancestors. Watching a chimp, ape, monkey or human yawn or even just show their teeth creates an almost immediate response for us to do the same back to the animal we are watching. It is even thought the yawn was the precursor to the smile with the tooth showing yawn the aggression and the tooth hiding smile the social non-aggressive other half.