If you own and take care of birds you’ll know that these tiny animals are generally very sweet and loving. If your bird is suddenly expressing aggressive behaviours out of the blue you may be concerned, and you should be. The question on your mind may be ‘why is my bird suddenly aggressive’ this article explores the reason why your bird is acting up. So if you’re a bird owner, future bird owner or are simply curious, this article is for you 

A variety of factors can cause a bird to suddenly become aggressive. These can include fear, hormonal changes, illness, change of environment, moulting, sleep deprivation, boredom, a small cage, dominance, new people around and flight suits 

Why is my bird suddenly aggressive?

There are a number of reasons why your bird is suddenly becoming aggressive, some can be rectified quickly and easily, others may take more effort. The reason behind aggressive bird behaviour include:

Fear: If a bird feels that it is about to be attacked or feels threatened the bird can get into a fight or flight mindset and become aggressive 

Hormonal changes: Birds go through hormonal changes in their ‘teenage period’ this happens between the ages of four months to a year. Their teenage period causes them to become aggressive

Illness: Some illnesses can cause the bird to feel stress, pain or anger. The bird can express these uncomfortable feelings through aggression 

Change of environment: If the bird is moved to an environment that it does not enjoy or feel comfortable in it can become aggressive 

Moulting: Birds moult annually, this may be a common and regular process that birds go through but it is still uncomfortable. Going through this can cause the bird to become aggressive 

Sleep deprivation: Just as with humans, birds need sleep and quite a lot of it, birds need around 10 hours of sleep to stay healthy and happy. A lack of sleep can make the bird aggressive 

Boredom: Birds, just as with many other animals, need to be stimulated in order to feel healthy and happy. If the bird becomes bored it can act out and become aggressive 

A small cage: Birds are accustomed to being able to freely fly in the sky, they and not meant to be bound to a cage. If your bird doesn’t have room to spread its wings it can become agitated and aggressive 

Dominance: If your bird gets into a situation where it has to compete with another for control or dominance then it may become aggressive 

New people around: If your parrot has had traumatic experiences with people it can have its guard up when new people come around and become aggressive

Flight suits: We as humans may enjoy dressing birds in flight suits but birds can feel like they are being forced into it, this can cause them to become aggressive. Positive training is needed to get them to accept it 

How do you stop a bird from being aggressive?

Deal with the issue: Many of the reasons behind a birds aggression can be treated relatively easily. In these cases, dealing with the issue will calm the bird down 

Positive reinforcement: You can reward good behaviour by giving your bird praise and attention when it does something right. This will help birds understand the difference between good and bad behaviours 

Ignore bad behaviour: If your birds is acting aggressively avoid giving it attention (positive or negative), simply ignore it 

Should I discipline my bird? 

No, negative reinforcement generally does not work on birds. Doing things like raising your voice or inflicting pain on the animal will make the bird confused, it won’t understand that something is wrong. In fact, the bird may even enjoy getting attention and a reaction from you and this will cause it to continue this bad behaviour. 

Can birds be traumatized?

Birds can be traumatized and this can happen without the bird owner even realizing it. Trauma can happen as a result of negative human interactions, keeping birds in cages and even interacting with other birds. 

If a bird is traumatized it will shake, peck at cage bars, repeatedly bob its head, self mutilate, pull out its feathers and even collapse from anxiety. Just like humans, the bird will become sad, aggressive, isolate itself, distrust humans and even have suicidal thoughts 

Conclusion

In conclusion, birds become aggressive for a number of reasons, including fear, hormonal changes, illness, change of environment, moulting, sleep deprivation, boredom, a small cage, dominance, new people around and flight suits. The best way to treat the bird is to ignore bad behaviour, reward good behaviour and deal with the issues that may be making it become aggressive. Birds can become traumatized so do not give it negative reinforcement

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: How do birds chew their food?, How do birds defend themselves?, Why does my bird eat its poop?, Why is my bird throwing up?, Why does my bird preen me?