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[Curious Diode]

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[JessiMuse]

Lucy likes to play with the camera. I usually have to do it while she's distracted, in a sneaky way she won't notice. Because then she would want to eat the camera, and I'll get pictures like this:



Only advice I can give you is to try and be very sneaky about it. Maybe have it turned on and prepared beforehand. Because when a parrot wants to play with something, they're pretty determined to play with it.

[Wolf]

Stay farther back and use the zoom on the camera.

[Pajarita]

Keep on aiming it at the bird without actually taking a picture with it and put it down immediately after just to do it again in another few minutes until the bird gets so used to seeing it that it no longer reacts to it.

[pukeko]

I use my phone, and that is around so frequently that, much like my glasses and jewelry, extremely repetitive gentle redirections have made it a thing to touch and perhaps nibble occasionally, but not go after with all of the intensity that a small dinosaur can muster. My proper camera.. I think they just got so used to me putting my phone in their faces that me doing that with another object is just a 'Food? Nope. No longer close enough to nibble? Ok.' occassion. I suppose I actually do that with tons of objects, letting them gentle beak it to check it out and then continuing on with what I am doing with it. Only objects that are safe to touch, of course, and I don't let them play with all of the random things which pass through my hands, but teaching them to very gently inspect a held object means that introducing things I do want them to play with is generally pretty easy. And gentle nibbles around the lens can give some great shots : D

Gentle exploration: recommend using a pen or other tough, small everyday item which he probably knows and is possibly dying to chew. Offer end for chewing, let the beak touch/bite, remove gently and calmly even if he is trying to destroy it. Do not do this if he will chomp you for trying... if that, take a look at Michael's archives. Aim for a willing touch and immediate removal, moving towards letting it stay for up to three seconds so long as he is gentle. Immedialy remove if he bears down. This worked fairly easily for me (first bird modelled for much more energetic and fearful second) but it might not be quick for you. This is also something which I pretty much constantly reinforce by habit, and did so with my first, very trustworthy (and photogenic) bird for years and years. Though it was always easier to offer her a human object than a bird toy anyway, she must have read something in my posture...

Of course, once he is desensitised he might just decide to pose for you, and that can be a problem too if he only wants to pose one way...

[Chantilly]

Digit does some incredibly adorable things sometimes. Sometimes after preening his tail, he will grab one of his tail feathers with his foot and scratch his face and neck with it! I would really like to capture some of these adorable moments on camera, but every time I pick up my camera he stops what he is doing and immediately wants to play with the camera. How can I "desensitize" him to the camera? So that I can take photos of him doing things rather than photos of him sitting there trying to reach the camera?

Tilly preens her head with her green feathers on her wing (protecting wing feather).. I was so worried she would start plucking or something becuase i thought it was so strange! Good to know my birdie isnt the only one that does it!
Not sure how to capture these momments though, They are very sneaky!

[seagoatdeb]

Gaugan is a real ham and will continue doing whatever she is doing when the camera is there. I try to be sneaky with Sunny to get a picture but he has eyes in the back of his head, If he sees me looking towards him he stops what he is doing and comes towards me.

[shiraartain]

I use my cell phone to take photos and videos, and Fajr is used to it because he sees it in my hand. Though sometimes it backfires because he wants all of my attention and will go to bite the hand holding the phone or attack the phone because he sees it as competition for my attention.