You might have noticed your bird acting a bit oddly lately. Your bird might be moody or suddenly aggressive. It might exhibit actions like bobbing of the head, regurgitation, 'clucking' or 'whining' noises, lowering of the chest while fluttering the wings, shredding paper, chewing or guarding toys, sudden feather plucking and possibly a change in dietary preferences. They can all indicate that "Spring" is here - even if it's not Spring!

But my bird's JUST a baby!

Birds as young as 3 months old can exhibit hormonal behavior! They just aren't mature enough to copulate.

It's not spring, why is my bird doing this?

For that, you have to understand when a bird's breeding season is. More importantly, when it starts. It used to be said that breeding season was officially 'over' come September. But, that's certainly not true. Most pairs will start going into the mating rituals around November or December and begin actively mating around January to March.

Oh no, that means there isn't a time that my bird won't be hormonal?

Not so. Just because breeding seasons can start early and finish late, doesn't mean that YOUR bird's species will be in that range. It also doesn't mean that your particular bird will be affected by hormonal shifts if the bird doesn't have a mate.

What do I do to curb these hormonal behaviors?

In reality, you cannot. You can lessen them by distracting your bird somewhat. You can be more cautious when handling your bird when they're moody. You can lessen the amount of daylight hours to simulate winter and hope it reduces the urge to copulate in your pet... all of these things can prove effective, but it doesn't remove instinct.

You can also try methods such as rearranging the toys in your bird's cage so the bird feels less settled in. You should also remove any hidey holes such as snuggle huts or sleeping boxes during this period. Birds love to nest and that fires up the hormones. Remove any shredder toys as well to curb the urge to chew (as in, to line the nest with). If your bird is a species that loves to sleep in a hut, get a bird buddy or stuffed animal for it instead. It can lean against the animal, and when it returns to the sweet natured pet it is... it can have the sleeping hut or box back.