New to it all

[Pajarita]

Well, no, it's not that he is less people-friendly now, it's that he was never people-friendly. He was taking food from your hand because he was starving and not because he was friendly, my dear. And your previous depriving him of food and forcing him to eat from you hand did not endear you to him, quite the contrary, you pretty much proved that, exactly as he suspected, humans are not to be trusted.

It's like Wolf said, ALL birds need getting used to their new home but an aviary IRN is 100 times harder than, say, a hand-fed gray, macaw, amazon, Senegal, etc. so you are going to need to put A LOT of work and time into the taming process because this bird is not imprinted to humans. And, after the bird learns to trust you and like you, you will still have to keep up the work and time spent with the bird on a daily basis or he will revert. This has nothing to do with you, mind you, it's the way IRNs are and why they are not recommended for newbies.

You need to keep the bird to a solar schedule, feed it a fresh food diet for all day eating and seeds for dinner (this is particularly important with this species), put its cage against a wall and high enough that his roosting perch is at eye level as well as in a place where it gets natural light. Then you need to sit with the bird every single morning at around 8 am to have breakfast with it (you should not sit so close that the bird feels he needs to back away from you, he needs to feel comfortable with the distance between you and him so you need to get him used to your presence close enough so he can see you eating). Talk, sing, whistle, offer a treat and, if he doesn't take it from your hand, just put it where he can get it without making a big deal of it (he needs to learn that you are ALWAYS the bringer of good things). Sit again with him in the afternoon when he becomes active after his mid-day rest or nap, watch TV, read, play video games, etc. The idea is to get the bird used to your presence in a quiet environment and for him to learn that you are no threat so don't stare at him, always look at him out of the corner of your eye, use a high voice with a singsong when you talk to him, praise, praise praise and, most of all, don't become impatient and try to rush things because, if you do, it will backfire.

You need to realize that, given the species and the fact that it's a parent-raised bird, this will not be a quick or an easy process. It will require A LOT of patience, consistency and persistence -basically, a BIG commitment because it will take a long time before you see any real progress. You also need to realize that even after doing all of these things and after the bird is tame and learns to trust you and even love you, you still will not have a cuddly bird because this is not a characteristic of this species.

[kiaora]

Ok, so we've given Buddy his space and not intruded inot his cage.

But he still seems to freak out and flap about in his cage and looses his mind....

What is the best way to help him adjust to having us near his cage?

He doesn't seem to like us near him what so ever.

Please help!!!!!

[Chantilly]

Just go slow, walk slow, and pretend you are just walking past dont look directly at him, do this while singing/humming. leave the room for a while .(be far enough away that he dosn't get worried)
every now and then do this. Eventually advancevtowards a tiny bit and pretend to do something(pick up something ect:)
you dont want to just jump on him, wich you are aware, but get him used to you coming and going, not looking specificly at him.
Each day go a little bit closer to his cage, this must happen over time or he will freak out. Dont direct your attention towards him,.
When you open the cage door, put a tasty treat or fruit out in the room for him, leave the room for a little while,(check on him from a distance every now and then) and see if he comes and eats it, eventually when he is used to coming and getting the food, you can slowly go in the room and walk in and out slowly.
Just dont direct attention to him, he will feel like his in danger, and right now you just want him to relax.
Keep positive, it will take time, and hard work, but Buddy can still become a nice, tame bird.

[Wolf]

You have been given a lot of good advice that will help you with your relationship with your new friend and I do recommend that you use it. Remember that you are essentially working with a wild bird and it is going to take time so patience and consistency are your biggest and best tools at this time.
When you first step into the room stop and watch him from the corner of your eyes and not directly as tis is how a predator does it. Notice his posture, did he move to the back of the cage? Did he start acting nervous? If so then take a step back and talk and sing to him from there but do not approach any closer until he relaxes. Then you can move one or two steps closer and repeat this process of advancing when and only when he is relaxed. Bring a book and sit down and read to him and when he relaxes scoot a little closer and stop at the first sign of nervousness. You will spend many hours of just being in the room with him doing other things at a distance from him just talking to him so that he can feel secure enough to relax with you. Be patient and you will get their but it can only move at the birds pace, not at yours.

[liz]

Example: you have adopted a scared orphan. He did not come from a happy place but is now missing everything he knew. You are alien as well as everything around him is alien and scary. You would not force yourself on a scared child. You would provide everything he needed and a lot of what he wanted. You would not invade his personal space but would be available for him to watch and listen to your voice. when he becomes more secure he will talk to you and eventualy come to you.

[Pajarita]

And make sure his cage is against a wall and make a hideaway corner by putting some type of material draped over it (so there is a solid 'ceiling' and two 'walls in that little corner 'cave') and that there is a couple of perches that would put him at your eye level (one of them in the little hide-away corner). Don't play loud music or make loud noises in his room, don't allow children to run around, etc. The idea is to create an oasis of tranquility where he feels safe and to introduce yourself into his oasis in a completely non-threatening way as well VERY gradually, only advancing (both physically and emotionally) at a pace that makes him feel comfortable.

[Wolf]

Ok, I have just finished read this entire thread from when you first posted it until I started this reply. I would like to say simply that your bird is not a cat or a dog and leave it at that, but I don't think that you will understand what I am saying and would say of course it is not a dog or cat, it is a bird which you can easily see. And that misses my point entirely. So even though I would like you to keep the thought that it is not a cat or dog, I would like to try to explain this a bit differently. so bear with me if I falter in this along the way and please feel free to question me further if I am not clear enough. With that said let me try to explain my thoughts on this.

You got your IRN sometime around the first of September as you started this on the third of that month, at that time you said that you had the bird for about a week and went on explaining your first attempts at training the bird, and this is exactly what you would do with a new dog or cat even when they are still young and new to the environment and to you, this is not what you need to do with a bird. All of your posts since that time show the same point of reference and that is alright except that this is a bird and it takes a far different way of viewing things if you are going to be successful in creating a good relationship with it, and it is why I would say that this is a bird and not a cat or dog.
We ourselves are mammals and a predator species just the same as a dog or cat, we also have many other similarities to dogs and cats, such as similar social structures, we have similar body languages so basically we have similar mindsets and they are domesticated with neither of them existing naturally in the wild, for humans they are ideal pets and companions.
Our birds are not domesticated, they are only just a few generations removed from their free counterparts living wild, they have a different social structure than ours, their body language is similar as much as it is different and has the added factor of them having feathers instead of hair and this is harder for us to understand as we are familiar to responding to hair position on our dogs and cats but understanding how feather position is part of their body language is much harder for us to understand, birds are prey animals instead of predators which means that we keep giving them the idea that we want to eat them through our body language to which they respond to with trying to get away or by biting us as these are their only means of defense. This is not your fault, but it is something that you need to be aware of so that you can present a different you to them. We also need this basic awareness so that we can change how we interpret their attempts to communicate with us and learn to understand their body language and why they react in the manners that they do. This is the basis of the statement that they are not dogs and cats.
Birds are prey animals and they depend on three things to help them to survive dangerous situations, they will first attempt to fly away and failing to do this they fight they also depend on their flock for defense as it is much harder to catch a single bird when 50 or more are flying around your head. When we get a new bird, which in many cases is just a baby, we bring it home with us to a nice large cage, but they are usually all alone in this new environment and then they have you, a strange new giant being that is in their face and poking at them while they are terrified of all of this to the point that it is a wonder that they don't fall over dead from heart failure. And we are ignorant of this thinking all is fine. What they need is time to relax in their new surroundings as well as a passive reassurance that everything is alright and that we are not looking at them as dinner or a snack. For them being alone in a strange place with a predatory creature near is a death sentence so they are right to be scared. Now they are also self aware in much the same way that we are and they are very intelligent and they know that they are dependent on us even though we are big and scary to them and they will try their best to be as cooperative as they know how to be because of this dependency on us. They are truly looking for any sign or indication that they can trust us although they are so frightened. They desperately try to communicate with us through the sounds they make as well as through their body language hoping that we will see and understand enough to know how scared they are.
For this reason we need to find a balance of leaving them in peace and being right there and trying to reassure them at the same time and it helps if we can understand some of their body language so that we can be close enough to let them know that we are friendly and reassure them that they are safe and not alone and still remain far enough back that they are not threatened by our presence. They are looking for and need reassurance and not training for a while until they can trust you enough that they can relax in the knowledge that you are not going to eat them or hurt them. They are not predisposed to obedience as the flock environment is one of willful cooperation as their are no leaders in the flock. We need to listen to them when they try to tell us that they are scared or otherwise not prepared or ready to do or have done to them what we are attempting at the time. We need to adopt a parent/ child attitude towards them as once they see that we can be trusted and give us their trust this is the nature of the baby birds bond with us, that of the dependant parent/ child bond and they look to us to show and teach them everything that they need to know to have a good life with us.
This is a very brief and basic description of the different way of viewing our birds and how to develop a relationship with them. I am hoping that you will begin to see and understand these differences and their effects on the relationship that we have and can have with them. They are different than we are and require us to look at things in a different light than what we are accustomed to and I really hope that this will help you to recognize these differences, Right now you need to earn your birds trust, without this trust you have nothing as it is the basis for everything that can be with you and your bird.

[Pajarita]

Wolf is correct - and, to put the icing on the cake, this is a species that is touch and go with bonding even when they are handfed and yours was a parent-raised aviary bird!