Having a pet is like having an adorable best friend, whether it’s an excited dog, a relaxed cat or a singing bird. If you own a bird you’ll know that these animals are lovely pets to care for. They are intelligent, quirky and very beautiful as they come in a variety of colours. They have personalities too, expressing their feelings in a variety of ways and through different behaviours, like nibbling for example. This behaviour may have you wondering ‘why does my bird nibble on me’ this article explores this question 

The reason behind your bird nibbling on you can be: exploring, preening or kissing. Birds communicate and learn using their mouths, thus they try to figure out what you are by nibbling on you, they may also preen your fingers by nibbling or put their beak against your face and nibble during a kiss. 

Why does my bird nibble on me?

Birds communicate and express themselves with their mouths, they cannot speak like humans can so they nibble, and use their mouths in other ways, to communicate.

Beaks are used as though they are another set of eyes, using them to explore the environment is how birds figure out what’s going on around them.

Thus one reason a bird may nibble on you is to make out what your hand is and to figure out if it can be trusted. If the bird nibbles on you, and you don’t react negatively, it will likely happily jump on your hand. 

Another reason why a bird may be nibbling you is to preen you. Birds preen themselves and their mates in an effort to maintain hygiene and keep their feathers straight and shiny.

If the bird is nibbling on you it can be because it cares about you and thus wants to keep your hygiene up. If the bird helps you with your hangnails or the bits of skin around your cuticles you’ll know that the bird is preening you. 

If your bird is kissing you as a sign of affection it can also gently nibble on you.

Birds can’t pucker their lips in a kiss but they ‘kiss’ in the only way that birds can: They do this by pressing their beak against your face and gently nibbling you. In some cases, the bird may even stick out its tongue as it does this.

This affectionate kissing can be done to both humans and flockmates 

Why does my bird bite me?

A bird gently nibbling is one thing but biting can be a serious problem, especially if your bird has a large beak that can cause severe damage. Reasons that your bird bites you include: 

Control: A bird may bite to control a situation, if a bird realizes that biting can cause a certain outcome it will continue to bite to continue to get those outcomes. The biting may ensure a trip back to the cage where it can have a meal in peace, prevent it from getting its nails trimmed or simply cause you to jump and yell in pain.  

Illness: If the bird has caught something, the illness can make the bird aggressive and bite. If your bird has not previously been a biter the illness can change its behaviour and cause biting 

Breeding season: When the bird gets older, matures and the breeding season starts, your bird can become aggressive. Birds need to be aggressive during this time to fight for a mate and keep her safe. This can show up as biting anything, and anyone, that appears to be a threat 

Fear: In all animals, fear causes either a fight or flight reaction. If the bird feels as though it is in danger, or is hurt, the fight or flight mechanism will kick in.

In this situation, the bird will bite whoever is attacking them and whoever is in their personal space. If the bird’s wings have been clipped they don’t have the option of flight and will thus bite if hurt or startled

How to stop a bird biting? 

Birds don’t always understand how strong their beaks are, they can bite and cause serious harm without realizing it.

Thus, training your parrot to stop biting and communicating to the animal that this is bad behaviours is a must.

To do this, you’ll first need to correct the problem as to why your bird is biting you, whether this means calming it down and reassuring the bird that there is nothing to fear, waiting till the breeding season is over, taking the bird to a vet or correcting the birds controlling behaviours 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, birds will nibble on you to try to figure out what you are and if you’re a threat, to preen you or as a way of kissing you.

The reason why birds bite include control, fear, illness or change in behaviour during the breeding season. Stop the biting by correcting the issue behind the biting 

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: Can birds eat Quaker Oats?, Why does my bird lick me?, Why does my bird tap its beak on me?, Why does my bird hate me?, Can baby birds eat bread?,