MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!

[Macawnutz]

This is a mad BG. Kailua says "this is mine, do NOT touch it".

She is of course using every method known to her to get Maui to leave but I posted this video to note the head feathers of an angry BG.

Sometimes so slight, notice the ridge in her head feathers. I call it the triceratops head. The green feathers stay pretty smooth and then elevate into the blue feathers. When being extremely subtle, which she is not doing, the ridge will elevate upward and then drop back flat continuing down the head. It can be a very subtle ridge but make no mistake they mean business when you see this.

After filming I realized Sakie ran off with my purse... that was what Kailua and Maui were watching at the front of the table.

 

[EllaMay]

Do not pass go and collect $100.00 you hear!

Love the vid of how they interact together... There is a law in order in all things!

Btw did Sakie ever bring your purse back?

 

[Macawnutz]

Btw did Sakie ever bring your purse back?

No, she spilled the contents while dragging it across the room. She must have tried to climb Kailua's perch with it as it was at the bottom and she was at the top.

 

[jen2016]

She's is an adorable grumpy fluff though!

Definitely saw the triceratops ridge. That's really cool! This is a silly question, but that display is specific to a BG and not all macs?

 

[Macawnutz]

She's is an adorable grumpy fluff though!

Definitely saw the triceratops ridge. That's really cool! This is a silly question, but that display is specific to a BG and not all macs?

In my flock, which is many, yes. Only the BG's use this feather display. I suppose my harlequin could as he is half BG but he has never done this. (I'll have to watch the Hy's, they may do something similar) I have been saying a lot this week that BG's pretty much wear their feelings on the outside and are easier to read than other macaws. This is one example of it.

Granted Kailua is throwing a lot of body language in this video, it's very easy for anyone to see she is upset. BG's like my Korbel can be more subtle. At bedtime Korbel will be very still and watch you, he hates to go to bed. If he is not going to allow you to take him to bed when you come close this subtle ridge pops out, nothing more.

 

[SandraK]

The only fids I have that do something similar are the Quakers - when the feathers on the back of their neck/head rise into a ridge I know it's best to watch what I'm doing as somebirdy doesn't like it.

 

[jen2016]

In my flock, which is many, yes. Only the BG's use this feather display. I suppose my harlequin could as he is half BG but he has never done this. (I'll have to watch the Hy's, they may do something similar) I have been saying a lot this week that BG's pretty much wear their feelings on the outside and are easier to read than other macaws. This is one example of it.

Granted Kailua is throwing a lot of body language in this video, it's very easy for anyone to see she is upset. BG's like my Korbel can be more subtle. At bedtime Korbel will be very still and watch you, he hates to go to bed. If he is not going to allow you to take him to bed when you come close this subtle ridge pops out, nothing more.

Ah, I see! I know with my conure Kiwi, he'd entirely fluff up when he was about to go on the attack(along with a few other postures to differentiate from a happy fluff), and I've seen Jack do full-fluff if something is upsetting him(along with a little vocalling) so I had (naively) assumed that was just a universal sign, but that's cool that there are more specific displays per macaw! Oooh, I bet if there is a Hy-tricaratops ridge that would be quite the sight...like a little skate ramp given their size.

I recognize that body language indication in Kailua that she was upset. Not from Jack...but Kiwi would do that hunched over bobbing, grumbling, frantically chewing on something(usually my clothes because he'd be on my shoulder and someone he considered a threat to me was approaching), and mini lunges too.

haha! Korbel must be part night-owl.

 

[SpecialistElbru]

I like this video because it shows the complexity of bird body language. I have some experience being around birds, but Macawnutz you have much more.

I would like to interpret their behavior/body language using human language. I will try not to anthropomorphize too much.

(gendered pronouns chosen at random) It seems odious that the B&G has found the label on the jacket and feels that she does not not to share the jacket or particularly the label. The scarlet defiantly is interested in the label.

What I find interesting is how the scarlet tries to get a turn at the patch. He is insistent but he rarely responds an aggressive move with aggression. Instead his counter-move appears to respond to aggression with acts of friendship gestures.

** A second by second breakdown follows **

At 0:27, The first aggressive gesture captured on video by the G&G appears. It does appear that aggression is countered with aggression.

At 0:47, the scarlet approaches again and the B&G response with an aggressive stance. What I find interesting in this section is that it appears that the scarlet responds with a friendship gesture. (My interpenetration that is a friendship gesture is that the scarlet only opens his beak by a small amount. He then takes the tip of the B&G's beak into his beak and touches his tongue to the tip of her beak.) The gestured that the scarlet does NOT appear to be a gestured of submission, but a gesture of friendship. The B&G then seams to reciprocate the gesture of friendship by gently closing her beak on the scarlet's beak and touching the tip his beak with her tongue. However even after the encounter the message seams to me to be "ok, were still friends but this is still mine and I am not sharing". (I interpret it this way because while the scarlet closes his beak after the gesture, but the B&G still holds her beak open to tell him that she is not giving in). The B&G then grabs her own toe with her beak.

At 0:52, the scarlet still tries to encroach on the label and a similar exchange appears to happen again. The B&G responds with an aggressive stance. The Scarlet responds with the beak touch. The B&G responds with the reciprocal friendship tongue touch, coupled with the open beak gestured.

At 0:59, the scarlet is still not giving the B&G the personal space she request. So she advances with the open beak gestured, the scarlet responds by backing away and giving space.

At 1:10, you can see The retreat was only temporary. You can see them staring one another down. (Ok this maybe be too much anthropomorphizing, but I could imagine the B&G saying, "You are not going to came back after all that, are you?".) The scarlet backs away farther and tries to appear that she is interested in something other than the label on the jacket.

At 1:23, you can see that the scarlet has in no way given up and return to "get a share" of the label. The B&G responds by asserting that she will not share the label. She does this by opening her beak wide and advancing. The scarlet then responds by bobbing up and down. The B&G tries to keep eye contact as the scarlet's head moves up and down. After the scarlet's bobbing stops the B&G grabs her toe with her beak and shakes it up and down. (I don't know how to interpret the scarlet's bobbing or the B&G toe shake)

At 1:51, the human offers a friendly head scratch and it is accepted by the B&G.

At 2:04, the human request a step-up from the B&G, but the B&G is not interested in relinquishing the label, so she refuses the step-up request.

At 2:07, the scarlet approaches again, the B&G responds with an open beak aggression followed by a self toe nibble.

At 2:09, the B&G gives another aggressive gesture with her beak. However the situation seems to be deescalated (when compared to 1:23) because the scarlet offers a friendship gesture and the B&G reciprocates the friendship gesture, while at the sometime being adamant that she is not sharing the label.

What do you think of my interpretation of the body language? Do you know what is the significance of the The scarlet bobbing that I spoke of in paragraph 1:23? Do you know what is the significance of the B&G shaking her foot with her beak that I spoke of in paragraph 1:23?

I think this video could be a part of a learning parrot body language seminar, because it shows the interaction between the two birds so
well.

 

[Tyrion]

Love the video

 

[Macawnutz]

I like this video because it shows the complexity of bird body language. I have some experience being around birds, but Macawnutz you have much more.

I would like to interpret their behavior/body language using human language. I will try not to anthropomorphize too much.

(gendered pronouns chosen at random) It seems odious that the B&G has found the label on the jacket and feels that she does not not to share the jacket or particularly the label. The scarlet defiantly is interested in the label.

What I find interesting is how the scarlet tries to get a turn at the patch. He is insistent but he rarely responds an aggressive move with aggression. Instead his counter-move appears to respond to aggression with acts of friendship gestures.

** A second by second breakdown follows **

At 0:27, The first aggressive gesture captured on video by the G&G appears. It does appear that aggression is countered with aggression.

At 0:47, the scarlet approaches again and the B&G response with an aggressive stance. What I find interesting in this section is that it appears that the scarlet responds with a friendship gesture. (My interpenetration that is a friendship gesture is that the scarlet only opens his beak by a small amount. He then takes the tip of the B&G's beak into his beak and touches his tongue to the tip of her beak.) The gestured that the scarlet does NOT appear to be a gestured of submission, but a gesture of friendship. The B&G then seams to reciprocate the gesture of friendship by gently closing her beak on the scarlet's beak and touching the tip his beak with her tongue. However even after the encounter the message seams to me to be "ok, were still friends but this is still mine and I am not sharing". (I interpret it this way because while the scarlet closes his beak after the gesture, but the B&G still holds her beak open to tell him that she is not giving in). The B&G then grabs her own toe with her beak.

At 0:52, the scarlet still tries to encroach on the label and a similar exchange appears to happen again. The B&G responds with an aggressive stance. The Scarlet responds with the beak touch. The B&G responds with the reciprocal friendship tongue touch, coupled with the open beak gestured.

At 0:59, the scarlet is still not giving the B&G the personal space she request. So she advances with the open beak gestured, the scarlet responds by backing away and giving space.

At 1:10, you can see The retreat was only temporary. You can see them staring one another down. (Ok this maybe be too much anthropomorphizing, but I could imagine the B&G saying, "You are not going to came back after all that, are you?".) The scarlet backs away farther and tries to appear that she is interested in something other than the label on the jacket.

At 1:23, you can see that the scarlet has in no way given up and return to "get a share" of the label. The B&G responds by asserting that she will not share the label. She does this by opening her beak wide and advancing. The scarlet then responds by bobbing up and down. The B&G tries to keep eye contact as the scarlet's head moves up and down. After the scarlet's bobbing stops the B&G grabs her toe with her beak and shakes it up and down. (I don't know how to interpret the scarlet's bobbing or the B&G toe shake)

At 1:51, the human offers a friendly head scratch and it is accepted by the B&G.

At 2:04, the human request a step-up from the B&G, but the B&G is not interested in relinquishing the label, so she refuses the step-up request.

At 2:07, the scarlet approaches again, the B&G responds with an open beak aggression followed by a self toe nibble.

At 2:09, the B&G gives another aggressive gesture with her beak. However the situation seems to be deescalated (when compared to 1:23) because the scarlet offers a friendship gesture and the B&G reciprocates the friendship gesture, while at the sometime being adamant that she is not sharing the label.

What do you think of my interpretation of the body language? Do you know what is the significance of the The scarlet bobbing that I spoke of in paragraph 1:23? Do you know what is the significance of the B&G shaking her foot with her beak that I spoke of in paragraph 1:23?

I think this video could be a part of a learning parrot body language seminar, because it shows the interaction between the two birds so
well.

For you, I feel I should have let the video keep going. After the video ended Kailua started advancing in a very forward fashion ready to run him straight of the table.

I think it best to answer your questions when I get home from work. It is a lot going on and personality is a huge part of it.

 

[SpecialistElbru]

I think it best to answer your questions when I get home from work. It is a lot going on and personality is a huge part of it.

Understood. My breakdown was quite extensive and I would imagine hard to take in if your using a phone or in a noisy place.

 

[Macawnutz]

Understood. My breakdown was quite extensive and I would imagine hard to take in if your using a phone or in a noisy place.

It's more that I want to answer you in the same detail and the keyboard on my phone makes me crazy.

 

[Sarah13]

Nice, I love watching birdie convos. I also like the movie music you always have in the background of your videos. Tarzan (Which I'm watching right now with mother and Val ha!) and Matilda/Ice Age.

 

[Macawnutz]

Okay Let's see.

To really explain in detail we must know a little personality.

Kailua is not a fighter, she really gets along with the whole flock as long as they don't attempt to touch her. At all costs she will refrain from biting unless given no other choice and even then she tries not too. She will not fly unless startled to do such. Maui is the annoying brother, he is always trying to bug someone. He has mastered the art of looking sweet as pie when he really has other motives. He is very flighted so has little fear of pushing others around because he can be quick to retreat if need be.

Kailua wants the whole jacket, the whole smushy nest to call her own. At times I think she wants me to jump in the nest with her but that's not going to happen. She wants it and does not want Maui touching it at all. Her biting the label is really just extra aggression to tell Maui she is not kidding. Maui does not want it but he does want to bug her, she is playing right into his game.

From the start of the video she is angry. Maui has touched her jacket quite a few times before I picked up the camera that's why she is chewing it. Her bobbing up and down holding my jacket is her regurgitating motion. The head roll and slight wing flips you see her do are all sexy in nature but not towards Maui. Kailua has deep jealousy/anger issues and when frustrated will bite her foot or let out a gym whistle sound. We are seeing her frustration by half a foot bite and half the whistle put together.

If you put your interpretations together with my few personality explanations you have it pretty well.

So to explain your paragraph 1:23, anthropomorphizing because I know what they are saying Maui is saying "na na na boo boo I'm still touching your blanket." While Kailua is saying "I wish I had the guts to bite you like my foot".

Maui's bouncing is extra energy, he does it when he wants something and is impatient or when he is trying to get attention. Oh, and I didn't ask her to step up. Kailua calms down if you offer her your arm or hand to touch. I was telling her it was okay and to calm down by offering her my hand.

 

[SpecialistElbru]

Maui is the annoying brother, he is always trying to bug someone. He has mastered the art of looking sweet as pie when he really has other motives. He is very flighted so has little fear of pushing others around because he can be quick to retreat if need be.

So your saying that Maui is probably not interested in the jacket itself, Maui is just using the jacket as a way to provoke a reaction from the other bird? It is the reaction that Kailua has, which is keeping Maui entertained. I have seen this in cockatoos, It seems that one cockatoo I know enjoys watching the other cockatoo display her "angry bird moves" and will do things that provoke a reaction.

The bird to bird interaction that I find most fascinating is how the threat display (open beak, coupled with "the triceratops head") is matched by the genital beak touch and the "tongue to tip of beak touch".

I still remember the "game" when I was a child, where I would provoke a peer into annoyment, then fake-apologize then provoke again then fake-apologize. I also remember it being done to me. I'm sure that parents are familiar when there kids play the "game" with their siblings.

I see the beak touch is sort of a deescalation/apology. However as you said he, "mastered the art of looking sweet as pie when he really has other motives". So the beak-touch is an insincere gesture that goes along with the act.

I have a slightly different interpretation of the foot grab. I suppose that we can never know for sure because the Vulcan Mind Meld is not a real thing. I am thinking that the foot bite is a sort of a threat to bite Maui. It might be a hollow threat, but a threat none the less. Humans and other behaviorally advanced social creatures have mirror neurons in out brains. The mirror neurons allows us to imagine ourselves in the place of a different human. If you can imagine two people arguing then one person looks at the other and pantomimes hitting himself in the face. In that case you can take that to mean that the first person is showing that it is really the second person that will be hit, if the argument continues to escalate. In simple creatures without mirror neurons, this sort of threat gesture would make no sense.

Does Kailua do the toe biting thing only when it is other birds that annoy her? Does Kailua do the toe biting thing when humans annoy her? Does Kailua toe bite what she is in a frustrating situation that does not appear to involve active agents?

 

[2macshan]

@2MacErik is from Kailua

 

[Macawnutz]

So your saying that Maui is probably not interested in the jacket itself, Maui is just using the jacket as a way to provoke a reaction from the other bird? It is the reaction that Kailua has, which is keeping Maui entertained. I have seen this in cockatoos, It seems that one cockatoo I know enjoys watching the other cockatoo display her "angry bird moves" and will do things that provoke a reaction.

The bird to bird interaction that I find most fascinating is how the threat display (open beak, coupled with "the triceratops head") is matched by the genital beak touch and the "tongue to tip of beak touch".

I still remember the "game" when I was a child, where I would provoke a peer into annoyment, then fake-apologize then provoke again then fake-apologize. I also remember it being done to me. I'm sure that parents are familiar when there kids play the "game" with their siblings.

I see the beak touch is sort of a deescalation/apology. However as you said he, "mastered the art of looking sweet as pie when he really has other motives". So the beak-touch is an insincere gesture that goes along with the act.

I have a slightly different interpretation of the foot grab. I suppose that we can never know for sure because the Vulcan Mind Meld is not a real thing. I am thinking that the foot bite is a sort of a threat to bite Maui. It might be a hollow threat, but a threat none the less. Humans and other behaviorally advanced social creatures have mirror neurons in out brains. The mirror neurons allows us to imagine ourselves in the place of a different human. If you can imagine two people arguing then one person looks at the other and pantomimes hitting himself in the face. In that case you can take that to mean that the first person is showing that it is really the second person that will be hit, if the argument continues to escalate. In simple creatures without mirror neurons, this sort of threat gesture would make no sense.

Does Kailua do the toe biting thing only when it is other birds that annoy her? Does Kailua do the toe biting thing when humans annoy her? Does Kailua toe bite what she is in a frustrating situation that does not appear to involve active agents?

Interesting questions. I will do my best.

First, I am sure that if Kailua was not on the table and Maui was he would have no interest in the jacket. He wants it only because Kailua does.

The beak touch, as it fascinates you I watched it a few times to give you my best impression. Maui is a friendly but annoying bird. I'm going to guess and say if Kailua would have given a sincere gesture back he would have been happy to make friends. Maybe. One will never know as Kailua is not interested in making friends but she enjoys being part of a flock. As both birds are reaching to their limit and giving each other nothing to grab it could have been a bite that both missed an opportunity to give. Neither showing fear but not giving anything to grab ahold of.

Kailua's foot grab has perplexed me since the day I brought her home. This is her first week in the birdroom.

She does it for many reasons. She does it when any bird or human upsets her. She does it to get attention. She does it to make people jump. I have not seen her do it if a toy upsets her but it wouldn't shock me if she did. She also uses the word "barretta" uniquely. It was a very noisey hyper amazon she lived with. I thought she would consider my amazon Barretta as they were both DYH. She uses the word Barretta for completely different uses. A barretta is anything irritating or loud. Maui is a barretta, school kids are a barretta, the vacuum... get it? Out of all my birds she is the most complex. Out of my flock I know the least about her history.

She was abused at some point. She was very afraid of sticks brooms and canes but gets better all the time. She had a bit of learned helplessness when I got her so I'm sure her frustration in the past had no choice but to be inward. Her jealousy of other birds stands in her way of making friends but as I said she does enjoy the flock. They just can not touch her.

As complex as she is she is one of my favorites. She is not food motivated and really makes me work to keep her happy. With humans she has really learned to be a confident macaw and knows she has the ability to make choices. I do hope she learns to make a friend as everyone in the room adores her. She is just not ready for bird contact.

Oh, and Maui.... he is just nutz!

 

[Macawnutz]

@2MacErik is from Kailua

In Hawaii? The name was a toss up. We had Maui but we also had Sakie and Korbel. It fit with our tropical drink theme. Buncha lushes over here.

 

[Macawnutz]

@SpecialistElbru also wanted to add that flock dynamics are REALLY interesting for those who choose to pay attention. If you know your flock well you know everything that is happening even if you're not in the room. Each bird is extremely unique but they all follow a higher set of rules. Not many of my birds are friends but they are a flock. Not one will sit next to another but in times of peril they put aside their differences. Even Sambuca will hide behind Korbel hoping the carpet cleaner will eat him first.

 

[2macshan]

Yes Hawaii