I just got back from teaching at a conference in Denver at The Gabriel Foundation. It was a fantastic event which was attended by some wonderful avian veterinarians and lead by Barbara Heidenreich and Susan Friedman. We spent a lot of time talking about Applied Behavior Analysis and then putting the science to work. Which was my job…leading break out training sessions with 6 parrots and 6 people at a time …
I find myself back in the mindset of operationalizing contructs and intentions–meaning describing body language for what I mean when I say…”He’s uncomfortable. He’s nervous. He’s content. He’s lost all motivation…” For instance when I say “That grey parrot is going to bite you!” I might be asked, “How do you know?” I would say, “His body feathers are fluffed, but his cap is slick. His head is bowed and his wings are loose against his body.”
Think it’s easy? You try it. Tell me what you see in this video where Sister and Anakin meet… I want descriptions of body language down to the movement of feathers and how this body language translates.
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P.S.– Think about my description of an African grey about to bite…think falcons and parrots really might be related??
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HAHA that is an awesome video. I think it’s difficult for a human to give detailed interpretations of body language. Even though we put so much more stock in body language than we do verbal.
Ya got me… But let me guess: The one on the right said, “Kiss the ring if you want to hang out on my perch.”
Here is my best guess. The bird on the left has her feathers slightly raised to say “look at how big I am” her whole body is facing the male and this means “I’m thinking about attacking you” She held her head low to say “If you challenge me I will jump on you” she was feaking, either because she just ate or say look I’m big and catch food”
The male stays still and watches her closely to say “hey I’m relaxed but I’m watching you (like a hawk) and am not afraid. Then he rouses to say “see how relaxed I am”
When he rouses it scares the female who then dips her body to say back off or I’ll attack. That in turn scares the male who in turn dips his body to say back off or I’ll attack. At the end the female raises her wings as if to take flight. This means “you are scary, I’m leaving”
Am I close??? By the way, they whistle great for raptors!!
Ken
P.S. I looked for your parrot book at Pet Smart and Pet Co. but did not find it. Is it still out there to find?
Her focus is on him and with her wings out slightly, she is in business mode and not backing down. She feaks her beak and the whole time she keeps up the eye contact and faces him. Her head is down and her movements are slightly exaggerated. Something catches her attention toward the window but she looks away keeping him in sight the whole time and facing him. His body posture is vertical to her horizontal. He on the other hand is drawn up tight and keeping his eye on her. It is interesting that she is making herself look bigger with the head down and the wing out slightly and he is a narrow and as vertical as he can get. When she finally takes her attention off of him and looks at the floor toward the camera he takes the opportunity to rouse. He looks away but keeps one eye on her as he relaxes. The motion that he makes snaps her back to defensive mode. He seemed to relax just for a second, but as soon as her attention is back on him his head goes down. He is not backing down, I don’t know if it is because he knows he can’t turn his back on her or he knows the limitations of his leash. I have watched similar behavior in imprint falcons and hawks and know that the body posture she is showing is a prelude to aggression. It may just be a show of dominance or the real thing if I was him I would not want to find out.
Can’t tell you much about the behavior (funny, now if it was my falcon in person I would be able to, but something about seeing it on video removes a layer of cues I must be useing). But I can talk you ear off about the parrots as falcons thing and the data that supports it…
Ken– Great job! I think you’re dead on with him startling her and both reacting with an aggressive stance. My book should still be out there. If you can’t find it in Petsmart or Petco try amazon.com. did you notice one of the falcons was whistling the start to The Good The Bad and the Ugly?
Jag08- Awesome description of the body language — operationalizing what the birds are displaying and likely to do without trying to “get into their heads”. Giving them human thoughts (which they may or may not have) often becomes shorthand and causes us to miss subtler signs. You’ve avoided that well! I think you could go even further. If I were an apprentice, I would say “what do mean when you say he starts to ‘relax’. What do you see?”
Therese — I would love to corner you sometime and listen to all you have to say about bird phylogeny. I think the research is very exciting!
I love to talk about phylogeny (or is it ies??) anyway, I’ve got a test and 2 pubs I’m trying to get done by Sunday, but after that things get a bit calmer. Do you do instant messanger of any flavor?