Budgie making a weird guttural sound?

[Britnicorn]

Phoenix does this thing where he grabs my lip with his beak and will start growling because he wants kisses, but today he's been grabbing my lip and making an odd guttural sound... it sounds like when you're at the end of your drink with a straw. I'd be concerned but the rest of his sounds are okay, he even still makes his normal growl sound. We also were at the vet only two days ago and the vet said he was healthy.

Does this guttural growl mean anything? He's at the peak of his molting it seems like, almost constantly dropping feathers and he is a very big pin head right now, so could it be a hormonal sound?

 

[Hermesbird]

Going to help by bumping.
I would take a guess at the hormonal molting. But it could also be him playing with new sounds if he’s healthy lol. I’m not experienced to give actual advice but the others will be along

 

[MC_Hahn's]

Do you have a video/recording of the noise? I'm not sure if that is hissing or something else based on the description... My two budgies hiss sometimes, but it doesn't sound like a hiss. More like a low grumble/warning noise. I don't think that's what Phoenix is doing, though.

Does his posture change while he makes the noise? Are his feathers ruffled (it might be hard to tell due to the molt) or his eyes pinning?

 

[zoo mom]

No thoughts or advice but bumping this back to the top.

And tagging @Lady Jane

 

[Britnicorn]

Do you have a video/recording of the noise? I'm not sure if that is hissing or something else based on the description... My two budgies hiss sometimes, but it doesn't sound like a hiss. More like a low grumble/warning noise. I don't think that's what Phoenix is doing, though.

Does his posture change while he makes the noise? Are his feathers ruffled (it might be hard to tell due to the molt) or his eyes pinning?

I’ve tried recording it but it’s really random, I wasn’t able to catch it.

The only thing he does when making the sound is grab my lip, and that’s the only time he makes the sound. I think his head feathers stand up too but that’s usually what he does when he’s begging (in this case he’s begging for kisses)

I don’t know what eye pinning looks like but his eyes look normal so I’m going to say no?

 

[Lady Jane]

Please dont let him grab your lip. Teach him not to do this. Human saliva is not healthy for birds.

 

[Britnicorn]

Please dont let him grab your lip. Teach him not to do this. Human saliva is not healthy for birds.

Holy cow I didn't know that thank you

 

[slurptea]

This year my paired budgie couple have produced babies. My male makes a throaty guttural sound when he enters the nest with the female and babies. I thought it was a calming happy sound.

 

[slurptea]

I’ve tried recording it but it’s really random, I wasn’t able to catch it.

The only thing he does when making the sound is grab my lip, and that’s the only time he makes the sound. I think his head feathers stand up too but that’s usually what he does when he’s begging (in this case he’s begging for kisses)

I don’t know what eye pinning looks like but his eyes look normal so I’m going to say no?

Of course it’s only my opinion but I would think it’s part of his begging for kisses activity. I wouldn’t worry about it. Budgie kisses often with side to side head movements while they share food in a kind of regurgitation act. Social bonding activity like this is probably what your male is doing with you. Budgies hate being alone and can suffer loneliness he’s probably very close with you.

I have a female budgie who’s part of a group of 5 birds and has a mate and babies, yet she regularly visits my son (13 years old) and sits on his shoulder, hand and steals from his dinner plate. Impossible to stop her joining in at dinner time she’s far to fast and impossible to lock her in her cage (can’t catch her refuses to go back home). She escaped once and after 3 days in the English countryside her friendliness saved her life as she sat on the shoulder of a man doing some gardening. He walked her inside and they posted her rescue on Facebook. She’s still friendly like this today. Not relevant to your guttural bird noise subject, but one impossible lost pet story with a happy ending due to her human bond habit.

 

[Momof3litt]

Is there any noise he could be imitating? I've noticed recently that my GCC makes a swallowing/gulping noise when he sees me drinking. It took a while to figure it out, but he doesn't do it in any other context. Is it maybe his own version of the kissy sound?

 

[Britnicorn]

Oh. This post is really old. An update though: As he got older the sound he was trying to make got a lot more practiced. It’s a hormonal “growl” sound that he makes. He doesn’t make sounds like normal budgies do because he wasn’t raised around budgies, so I think that was his attempt at “growling” like other budgies do

Being around Raijū for over a year now though has made him solidify that sound and now I can actually tell what it is he does it to court, and in the case of when he was grabbing my lip like I said earlier in the post, he was courting/demanding me to give him kisses