At one point today, while I was sitting on the couch and Mango was in her cage, I saw Mango walk down to the open door of her cage and look out. I called her and then she looked right at me and put her head out the door. I held up my hand and said "Come on, Mango....come here" trying to entice her to fly to me. She did not fly to me, but she kept trying to move toward me, inching her way out of the cage while looking intently at my extended hand. Then, she gave me the head-bob once again. I really do think that the head-bob is a "favorable" communication. It seems to mean that she is favorably disposed toward our interaction and engaged. I can tell that a part of her really wanted to come to me. She was very conflicted and climbed all the way out of the cage and clung to the side staring at me and bobbing her head. It was a very interesting interaction. Eventually, she climbed on top of the cage. I kept trying to get her to fly to me but she would not. It is interesting that when I am near her she moves away from me, but when I am at a distance and ask her to fly to me, she actually seems to be considering it.
I placed some seed on the table next to her and she came down and munched. At one point, I picked up a red Tupperware lid and when she saw it, she freaked and started flying around the room. She landed in her usual corner and hung out there for about an hour, then flew to a ledge, then back to her cage where she climbed inside, ate some food and went to sleep. I have noticed that the color red really seems to freak her out.
She is becoming a confident flyer now. She now flies back to the top of her cage instead of using the ladder.
All of this is very interesting to me. It is fun to try to figure out conure psychology. It is definitely different from Pionus psychology. Pionus don't seem to do the head-bob as much. For conures, a head-bob really seems to be a good thing.
