Here is an interesting video of my friend Tenko interacting with his African Grey. It shows a lot about behavior and human / animal interaction:

If you observe this video closely, you may learn quite a bit about body language and the reaction of the bird to the human’s antics.

Initially the bird is ignoring his human. The human goofs around and the parrot is totally relaxed about it. This changes abruptly when the human stares directly at the parrot at close range (approx. 1:56). The parrot moves away and in her body posture shows some clear tension for a while afterwards.

What is particularly interesting is that the bird shows interest in her owner only when he starts to ignore the bird. You can see this rather beautifully around 3:15 and 3:36. That is why I always preach in training to let the bird come to you and not the other way around.

I bet this answer is way more than what my friend bargained for when he posted me this cute little video. 🙂

Apart from the behavior topics, I would like to point out that the keeping conditions shown in the video must be massively improved. Tenko rescued this African Grey three weeks ago from a family that kept her in a budgie cage. Thus, the entire set-up is what was put together on short notice. The new owner is now in the process of ensuring species appropriate keeping conditions. The current, interim cage is not even half the size required by the minimum requirements for the species appropriate keeping of parrots. Also the bird needs a same species opposite gender mate. Last but not least, it is way to dark. The bird needs light, in particular UV-light to stay healthy. This is on order and should arrive in a few days time.