Hi, I have a young Curl that is starting to exhibit odd behavior at some visitors and I'm doing trial and error to try to see what it might be. I'm also the only person in the house.
At first I chalked it off to just the usual onstart of mate behaviors. But then there are some interesting things that make me think twice:
1) he only 'attacks' certain people and not others. And male or female doesn't matter. I am female. One time when he was about 7 months old I had 3 visitors over (2 female, 1 male) and he became friendly with the male (who was soft spoken), but dive bombed the 2 women. BUT then I noticed they has both put red highlights in their hair. I have black hair (the guy had black hair too). So as an experiment I had the 2 women put on hats and my Curl left them alone the rest of the evening.
2) another time I had 2 ppl over (man and woman) and he absolutely downright dive bombed the guy. He had on a red jacket! So we had him take off the jacket but my Curl still went for him, even worse than before. The guy was a bit more outspoken/loud and partly bald (his bald head seemed to be a target!)
3) a female friend visited recently (my Curl has met and known her since he was very young), but to my surprise he started doing his fly-by behavior to her (swooping near her head). But I had a feeling it was not really aggression but more out the fact we were talking to each other and he was jealous at being 'ignored'. Also she has light brown/reddish hair which I think he finds unusual and wants to investigate. So, I had my friend put a hat on, then hold, cuddle and feed him and within just a few minutes he was as sweet to her as he was to me. And she was wearing a shirt with red designs on it.
I still have to experiment with different people (my poor guests lol) but just wanted to recount my experiences.
BTW these "attacks" consist of not much more than as if you were being attacked by an angry Blue Jay outdoors if you approached their nest. In reality the Aracari beak can't really rip or tear your flesh at all. So no one was really in any danger, its just all squawk, no bite.