Confidence breeds Confidence

[spain]

Over the last few weeks, I have learned (I think) a lot about how Macaws interact with humans (Compared to the nothing I knew before). I say that because I visited Sol & Luna for the first time in 2 weeks yesterday, and from what I've learned from Dino, was not affraid of Sol, as I always have been.
The result was, he was a completely different bird to the one I thought I knew. I let him take my finger in his beak, something I've laways been terrified of, and rather than bite it as hard as he always has done in the past, was a lot more gentle. He climbed onto my shoulder and nibbled my ear, without any pain. Even (though I have to admit, still hesitanly) let me stroke the back of his head, but it was far closer than I've ever got with him, and I know its because I've learned that even if one of these big beasts wants to bite you hard, there's a knack to preventing it, which seems to come hand in hand with confidence, but which you can't explain. I know I have a looooooong way to go yet to be anything close to an expert, but thir traits are starting to show :-)