Cockatiel keeps flying off my shoulder

[thinjim]

My cocktiel is about 2 years That i had her. She's about 2 1/2 years old. She started flying off my shoulder 5 months ago when I started not giving her enough attention. Thst's no longer true. But still she flys off. It's only when I try to put her back in the cage during the day time. I've tried taking the mirror away for a hour. Been doing that for a month or 2. Still no change in behavior. Any suggestions?

[LiaraTivona]

I hate to break it to you, but it's a living breathing free willed animal. It has no obligation to stay on your shoulder just because you put it there. Try thinking more from the bird's perspective and always ask "what's in it for me" for the bird. Consider putting a perch near where you spend your time and putting some activities for the parrot to do on there or be more proactive interacting with it when it is with you.

Don't worry though, for many of us the issue becomes keeping the parrots off our shoulders rather than on!

Yeah, my bird always goes on my shoulder and nibbles my glasses! It is rather annoying but I love him so I can't complain.

We taught our one bird, "Bite the glasses" and it reaches up and mouths the horizontal bar of our glasses. Beats our previous bird's untrained habit of biting my ear or eating my hair.

[MeanDonnaJean]

Don't worry though, for many of us the issue becomes keeping the parrots off our shoulders rather than on!

Many thanx for respondin' to this post for me, Michael. I was jussssst gonna say the same darn thing.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Ours bobs his head all the time and then flies.... it's a male tiel thing, they also tap things with their beak. The chirping is him trying to imitate you if you're humming to him or playing music.

Mine sits on my head a lot or when we are walking around he will sit on my shoulder briefly bob his head and fly off and then chirp. It's his idea of saying come get me... like a game of catch or tag! He keeps this up for hours at a time!

If we don't play he usually cuddles up under our chin and chirps till we do.