Dealing with spring hormonal aggression

[Pajarita]

All birds like high places, they make them feel safe and don't want to be taken down from them but this doesn't mean they should bite their humans for it. Now, you said you were picking up your ten month old baby so is it possible that she sees the baby as competition for your love? Has her out of cage and/or her one-on-one interaction time suffered because of the baby's birth? Because, usually, there is a reason why they turn on their chosen ones (she sounds quite upset with you) and it's very common for lone parrots to feel neglected when babies arrive. I am not saying this is the case here, I am just saying this is a very common occurrence because, let's face it, babies take up a lot of time and most of our energy and affection and, usually, the parrot is the one that suffers for it (only so many hours in the day and only so much energy to go around). Parrots are patient and, when confronted with a change for the worse (less time spend with their beloved or out of cage, less affection, etc), they don't usually react immediately, they wait and wait for things to get better but, once they realize this is it and that it's not just a temporary thing, that's when they react. And, of course, the breeding season and the fact that she is now sexually mature make things worse not only because sexual hormones almost always make them more prone to aggression but also because, at two years of age, she's now come into her own and became an adult with the corresponding sense of self-worth and confidence which makes her more assertive as to what she needs and desires.

[Wolf]

I am wondering if she sees something while on the balcony area and if so what direction it is in, as it also may have something to do with the biting.

[Maltee]

Wolf, she seems territorial over the top landing of the stairs (the area right above the top step). All I can think of is that she either feels powerful there because she is much higher than me when I go up the stairs to get her, or she is angry because she thinks I will return her to her cage if I catch her there. There's not really a whole lot in view there. She is largely unfamiliar with the upstairs area. Her cage is downstairs.

Pajarita, I had the baby about 6 months after I got the bird, and she was still a baby then too, so I think she has been pretty used to him from the beginning. She largely ignores the baby. I don't really think she is competing for my love, because she doesn't really like me much in the first place. I was never her favorite person. My husband is her favorite person, and the one she sees as her mate. We discourage breeding behavior around him like regurgitating, and we avoid petting her anywhere except her neck. We rarely see outright sexual behavior from her though. The main struggle is how aggressive and territorial she gets when my husband is home. She will be with him on the couch, and if I enter the room, she has been known to fly at me and attack me. She used to be fine and not aggressive toward me when my husband was not home, but now it has gradually gotten worse and she is becoming more aggressive toward me when he isn't home. It was my habit to let her out for out-of-cage time after lunch. I would feed her treats, she would sit with me on the couch, and explore the top of her cage. Now I am finding myself limiting her time out because she is getting so aggressive with me when she's out. Just today when we were on the couch and I tried to feed her an almond (one of her favorite foods), she suddenly became incensed and charged at me to bite me. When she gets in that mood I don't know what to do but return her to her cage and maybe let her out in an hour when she's calmed down.

tl;dr : My husband is my bird's favorite person, and I think her jealousy for him has spilled over into aggression toward me. She is becoming more wary and aggressive toward me by the day. I'm not sure how to stop it from getting worse.

[Wolf]

The issue of the landing area, I think is that you are going to bring her back down and so interfering with something that she wants to do. This behavior is most likely as you see it. Here is a link that I think should help.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1528

Try it and let us know if it helps.

[Maltee]

This morning I had a small success. My husband has been stick/target training her the past few days, and this morning I used stick training to get her out of her sleep cage. It was the first morning in at least a month she came out without aggression! She even said "Good morning!" I had been using a perch for her to step up on, but after reading Michael's article on negative reinforcement, I learned that sticking the perch into her tummy was a form of negative reinforcement and that's why it wasn't working. Getting her out with the chopstick and clicker took longer, but she didn't get angry at all! I'm hoping I can keep this up and maybe eventually get to the point where she will step up onto my hand again.

[Wolf]

Yeah, I would be a bit pissed at someone who poked me in the belly with a stick too! This suggests that there may be a lot more behind her behavior than we could have known. I am usually notorious for asking a lot of questions, and it is hard to know what the right questions to ask are. And you have to be careful how you ask them, too.
I screwed up on this one because it seemed like it was fairly straight forward. Thank you for this last post, it reminds me to take nothing for granted, always ask. Thank you.