A bird pecking you can be upsetting to you no matter how hard or gentle the peck is
You may want to know why your lovely bird does this. This article looks into what it means when a bird pecks you.
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What does it mean when a bird pecks you?
Birds do everything for a reason including pecking and including pecking at you.
While the bird may not tell you why it is pecking at you the internet will. Here is why your bird is pecking you:
Protecting its territory:
Birds are quite small but they still try to defend themselves and their territory somehow.
One of the ways that birds do this is by pecking.
In the wild, a bird’s territory would be where they would forage for food and lay their heads at night.
This territory is important so the bird will do anything to protect it.
If you get too close to your bird’s territory, and the bird doesn’t like this, then your bird may peck you to get you away.
What to do:
You can combat this by getting the bird comfortable with you.
Birds who enjoy being around you, and are comfortable being around you, will not peck at you when you get into their space.
You can get the bird to like you more by spending time with it and giving it treats so it associates the positive feeling of getting treats with you.
Spending time with the bird will get it to see that you aren’t there to harm it.
Your bird will start to trust you and think of you as a member of its flock as time passes and it will let you into its space with no issue.
Hormones:
Another reason why your bird may bite you may be that its hormones are raging.
Hormones will make your bird aggressive and act out when the breeding season rolls around.
One way that your bird may act aggressively is by pecking at you
Your birds may also peck at you during this time because they are trying to protect their mates.
What to do:
Longer days make birds think that food is abundant and makes them want to breed because of it
Thankfully, you can deter breeding behavior in your bird to some extent.
Do this by making sure that the bird doesn’t experience days that are too long.
Do this by limiting the hours of light that your bird receives.
Giving the bird less high-energy food, more low-energy foods, or, giving the bird limited, but still enough, food will also help reduce breeding behavior.
If you want your birds to breed, but aren’t a fan of the biting, then you can avoid handling the bird altogether.
This is simply a phase and isn’t something that will go on forever.
What not to do:
While you can remedy the pecking by solving the root cause of the pecking, what you should never do is punish the bird for pecking you.
Punishing will only make the bird scared of you and make it want to stay as far away from you as possible.
Your bird won’t understand that you’re punishing it in response to the pecking, it will only see the punishment as you attacking it and you behaving like a predator.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Budgie Chirping At Night?, Why Is My Budgie’s Tail Shivering?, Why Does My Bird Bite Me Softly?, Baby Conure Biting Hard, Why Has My Budgie Stopped Eating His Seed, Why Does My Bird Scream When I Play Music?, Why Does My Bird Bite My Fingers?