Senegal Parrot Courtship Behavior?

[alliethebirdnerd]

Hi all-
I'm new to the forum but not new to parrots, so trust me I'm not a "newbie". Haha. However, I was wondering if anyone has ever experienced this with their Senegal (mine's a DNA male). He's 8 months old, I hand fed him since he was only 3 wks (I *rescued* him from a pet store I work at, but trust me that's a whole other story) and he is just the sweetest little Sennie.
He is very strongly bonded to me, but is not really a one person bird. However I noticed some new behavior with him lately. Whenever I make a popping sound at him, he'll droop his wings, regurgitate, and start making a weird snort/whining sound. It's not at all like the baby "begging" he used to do with me. I have a hunch that it may be courtship behavior, but being that he's so young, I'm not really sure. Has anyone else experienced this? And what should I do, if anything, about it? He's such an awesome, cuddly little bird and has had such a hard life, I don''t want to deny him any extra attention.
Comments would be helpful!!!
-Allie

[Michael]

Sounds like it. I think juveniles will practice courtship behavior but not necessarily act on it.

[alliethebirdnerd]

Should I do something about it now? I don't want my little guy to grow into some hormone-crazed adult and have him attack everyone else do defend his "mate" (meaning me). I mean he already distrusts and often bites men, but i think thats some post-trauma coming from the pet store because he was mistreated by some men who worked there.

[Michael]

Don't do whatever leads up to it and if it does happen, put the bird down and ignore.

[JennyBink]

Sorry for posting on an old thread (I've not been able to visit the site for a while!) but alliethebirdnerd I have a male Senegal who is pretty much the same age as yours (now about 11 months old) and he has recently started doing exactly the same thing.... Putting my hand in his cage to stroke him when he's on his highest perch seems to trigger this for some reason, he'll drop his wings and make the panting/whining noise and will start climbing over my hand (at this point I make a swift exit!)

I haven't really done anything except not encourage it now I know what sets him off... when we first got him he didn't like my boyfriend, but has now changed his mind and loves him so I don't want anything to upset that such as him deciding that I'm his mate or something!

As well as this behaviour he has also recently become much more nippy (it's like he just constantly wants to chew on us when he's in a nippy mood, rather than biting because he's trying to tell us something although I may be wrong about this) And also he's become quite a lot more vocal.

The thing that really concerns me however is the last couple of visitors I've had round to the flat... I have him out a lot and he's fully flighted, and the last 2 times someone's been round (my mum and then my sister) he's flown directly at their faces He never used to do this, not only is it embarassing but I want him to be able to interact with people other than just me and my boyfriend. I'm not sure whether this is aggression/defensiveness as he's maturing? I'm considering trying to have them feed him treats or try target training which he responds well to with me, but to be honest I'm now worried about even having him out next time they're round in case he does the same thing again!