Does your bird flap at night?

[jayebird]

So Mango has this funny habit at bedtime. The minute I flick the light off he races up to the top of his cage, hangs upside down, and flaps his wings pretty hard. He doesn't seem frightened, he doesn't scream, he has plenty of room to flap safely and sometimes does so while ahnging onto different perches or the wall of his cage -- only at night after the lights go out.

He tires himself out after a couple bursts of flapping and then grinds his beak peacefully on his sleeping perch and sleeps right through the night. His wings are clipped, but we do daily flapping exercise with him (running around the house on our hands) in preparation for him being flighted soon enough...

I can't imagine what the natural instinct for this is.......any ideas? Or do any of your birds do it?

[pchela]

I've known lots of birds who flap furiously, usually daily, but never upside down. African Greys especially like to flap like that. I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about.

[MandyG]

My Amazon will do that when he's on his play stand (made with tree branches). He goes to the highest branch, flips over forward, then just stays upside down flapping furiously. He'll also flilp forward then flap his wings and 'fly' back upright, he'll do this repeatedly. I really need to buy a video camera, it's actually really funny to watch.

I wonder why Mango does it only at night, though?

[zazanomore]

One of my budgies do that. Randomly throughout the day she will go onto one of her hanging toys, hang upside down and then flap like there's no tomorrow. I've read that bird's do it because it feels good.

[born2fly]

Are sure he's not a bat?

[Brittanyv326]

That's weird right before bedtime, but probably nothing to worry about, just a unique behavior! Sadie does it on her playstand occasionally, it looks like she's having a blast doing it.