Flapping While Perching ?

[Astrid660]

My female tiel does this quite a bit ( her name is Siena but I usually call her nenna.) When she perches on my finger sometimes and flaps her wings, I call her flappy nenna.
lol but besides that, this morning I kind of realized I don't know why birds do this. Is it for exercise? She likes to fly around too, so why the perch - n - flap ?

[hsmoscout]

She is EXCERCISING!!! That's how they get a nice cardio workout! lol Peanut does that all the time. If she does this while on her cage and slightly upside down, she may be "marking" her territory. When Peanut "marks his territory" he looks just like a bat!

[ashxo]

I heard from a couple of sources that it can also be a display ownership thing. My girls do it on the particular feed dishes they allocate themselves xP

[LovelySydney]

This question was posted on the Caique forum - they are just doing a work out. I just found that out too, so were in the same boat!!

[Monica]

I've found that for birds who are very active, then all of a sudden are clipped/caged and don't get enough flight, that they are more likely to flap in place to get rid of excess energy. I have yet to see a flighted bird, out of a cage, do this behavior, unless they were extremely excited but were not interested in flying.


As for the "bat like" behavior, I've always figured this wasr a form of startlement - i.e. trying to appear bigger than they are. I can't say that the behavior is possessiveness, as I've seen this in single birds as well as in a flock setting, and if it was possessiveness then they would be defending the area as well - which I have *NOT* seen.

[Astrid660]

^thanks for the responses. .. I think that is what she is, excited and not interested in flying. haha it just happened again this morning when I came inside, I picked up Siena and she started flapping but then after a while she flew around the room a few times.