Silly bird behavior

[vivianlucille]

My cockatiel and my conure both have this funny little thing they do and I'm not sure if it means something or they are just being silly. They will stand with their legs very straight and their body is also completely straight with all of their feathers tight to their body so they look like what reminds me of an airplane with no wings. Then they do a very slow turn from side to side in a motion that reminds me a lot of a sprinkler. What on earth are they doing?

[Chantilly]

My cockatiel and my conure both have this funny little thing they do and I'm not sure if it means something or they are just being silly. They will stand with their legs very straight and their body is also completely straight with all of their feathers tight to their body so they look like what reminds me of an airplane with no wings. Then they do a very slow turn from side to side in a motion that reminds me a lot of a sprinkler. What on earth are they doing?

My green cheek sort of does this too,
Now I beleive if they just stand straight with feathers tight to body it means that they are alert for predators and getting ready to flee if it is needed.
My conure does not do the sprinkler thing slowly, she fluffs her feathers and does it very fast flicking her head side to side doing what I call the 'happy dance' because she does it when she is excited.
Although I am not certain what it would mean when they turn their heads slowly, it may be looking for predators?
Hopefully this helps
And welcome to the forum! I see this is your first post, we would all love to get to know you and your babies so could I request that you introduce yourself all of your wonderful birds is the Introduction section for us?

[Wolf]

I would be extremely vigilant with these two bird if they are doing this. With parrots the horizontal posture with the " skinny bird" look, which is when they hold their feathers very tightly against their body is an attack posture and to tell the truth the cockatiel does no have even the slightest chance of defending itself against your conure, Who can kill the cockatiel very easily. I would hate for this to happen. Even a budgie which most people in the US refer to as parakeets can beat up a cockatiel who are extremely gentle birds.

[liz]

They are both right.

Cockatiels are defenseless against any others.

When Tweetle Dumb died Tweetle Dee wanted to join the cockatiels. I tried it but all four cockatiels huddle in a corner of the cage from fear even though they would have out time together and were okay with that.

[vivianlucille]

Thank you for your replies. I had read somewhere else that it could be they are alert looking for predators but that didn't make a whole lot of sense. They both do this only when they are in their cages. Actually, they never really associate with one another. The conure is very spoiled having been hand fed by me since 7 weeks. The cockatiel we just rescued and he just has no interest in anyone. We are just getting him to trust us at feeding times. It just seemed like they were doing it during calm and quiet times.

[Pajarita]

Well, they see and hear much, much better than we do so it's entirely possible that what seemed 'calm' to you (no movement or noise) was not that calm to them. In any case, the 'skinny' look is a sign of tension, alertness, wariness, etc.