Birds make a variety of noises that confuse and even scare us, and understanding why your bird makes different noises is a good skill to have as a bird owner.
This article is a look into why your bird makes whimpering noises.
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Why is my bird making whimpering noises?
If you’ve owned birds for a while you’ll know that they don’t only make chirping noises.
Your bird may also make the occasional whimpering noise. Here is why birds do this:
Sleeping sounds:
If your bird is whimpering at night this simply means that the bird is talking in its sleep.
Birds of all types talk in their sleep, they make a variety of sounds, including whimpering sounds as they sleep.
A bird who is having a bad dream will whimper while sleeping.
Just as in humans, birds experience REM sleep which is a deep sleep where most of your dreams happen.
Unfortunately, bad dreams will happen just as good dreams will happen and your bird may whimper because it is having a bad dream.
What to do:
These whimpering sounds are normal for birds so you don’t have to worry.
While you don’t have to worry, unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do about your bird having bad dreams.
All you can do is make sure that the bird’s cage is safe in case the bird falls off of its perch at night because of the bad dream.
Emotional distress:
Your bird may also make whimpering sounds when it is surprised or distressed.
An example of this is the birds whimpering when you turn off the lights in their room.
Your budgies will whimper because suddenly having the lights off is odd and scary to them, they are used to lights dimming as the sun sets.
This sudden change in the lighting will be so alarming to the birds that they will whimper when this happens.
What to do:
You can combat this by gradually getting your bird used to the change.
Do this by using a dimmer in the bird’s room when wanting to switch from light to dark.
This slow and gradual change is more normal for the birds.
Mating sounds:
Another reason why your bird may be making these whimpering sounds is that it is expressing mating behavior.
These sounds will come from a female bird and will sound like soft, low, purring, or whimpering sounds.
If your bird is a budgie then the sounds will be sweet and cute, in bigger birds, like macaws, the sounds may sound as though the bird is in pain.
What to do:
As long as the bird is acting like its usual self, as long as the bird is still eating normally and behaving normally apart from the whimpering, then the bird should be fine and you don’t have to worry or do anything.
You would however need to worry if the bird starts showing signs of distress or illness along with the whimpering.
If the bird’s attitude starts to change, or its health starts to decline at any time, then you may have to have the bird checked at the vet.
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: Parrot Making Noise While Sleeping, My New Parrot Is Very Quiet, Budgie Shaking Head Side To Side, Why Is My New Budgie Always Sleeping?, Why Does My Budgie Chirp When I Talk?, Why Do Budgies Pull Each Other’s Tails?, Conure Biting Other Birds Feet