Beak Clicking

Beak clicking: a thing that means a lot of things

Parrot behavior can be difficult to people because a lot of behaviors mean many different things depending on the context of the situation, other body language factors, and the individual bird. Beak clicking is one of those things.

Here with Alfie, this beak clicking is from overstimulation. He was being a wackadoodle on his boing for my attention, and I was hyping him up. Alfie is big into auditory enrichment and often makes his own sounds, like beak clicking.

A more common form of beak clicking you see in cockatoos is for hormonal reasons. When you pet your cockatoo or hug them, if they’re clicking, you’re likely stimulating them sexually. This can also be seen if they’re on the floor or your bed, maybe in a box (I never recommend giving a box to any parrot), under a blanket or furniture, or any other situation similar, it’s likely hormonal clicking.

When you see hormonal clicking, the bird should be interrupted IMMEDIATELY. Remove them from the area, stop petting them, or any other non-coercive measures to get them to stop. You want to refrain from saying anything, giving attention in anyway minus to transport, or giving any treats or foraging toys immediately. This is because it could reinforce your bird doing that without you realizing it.

Once a few minutes have passed, it would be a good idea to give your bird some mental stimulation to keep them busy from engaging in hormonal behaviors.

If your bird is overstimulated clicking, it’s best to be as hands off as possible. You’re just asking to possibly get bit. I wait till I see calm body language before engaging. This also means I do not hype Alfie up unless he’s in a place where I can be hands off for him to calm down. So, his furniture that he cannot get to the walls or floor, as well as he’s around other flock members he gets along with.