A

A-B-C (antecedent, behavior, consequence): fundamental behavior analysis formula

Abundance weaning: name coined by Phoebe Linden for a hand feeding technique based on feeding a baby parrot when it is hungry, as opposed to avicultural technique of feeding according to a rigid schedule.

Aggression: offensive or defensive behaviors; usually in protection of territory or mate, or a defensive response to perceived danger or fear

Allopreen: mutual preening done by parrots

Altricial: birds that are born helpless (i.e., songbirds, parrots)

Ambient attention:  attention that does not include physical contact.  Example:  talking or singing to or with the bird when he is in or out of his cage.

Animal Rights: the belief and/or movement that considers animals to have legal and ethical    rights equal to humans

Animal Welfare: the care and protection of animals

Anthropomorphic: to attribute so-called "human characteristics" to a non-human animal; often misapplied to anyone who dares suggest that parrots are capable of emotion

Aviculture: the keeping, breeding, and raising of birds (usually exotic species)

Bappy: Term coined by Sally Blanchard referring to a baby parrot

Barbs: slender structures of a feather that branch off the rachis or central shaft of the feather

Barbering: self-inflicted damage to a feather that is still attached to a parrot; one type of feather destruction

Barbules: microscopic hooks that hook barbs together; preening re-hooks the barbs together

Beak grinding: 1. the rubbing together of the upper and lower beaks done by relaxed parrot as it readies itself for sleep; 2. grooming procedure done on over-grown, abnormally shaped, or maloccluded beak

Blood feather: growing feather with blood and nerve supply; frequent source of hemorrhage if damaged

Board-Certified Avian Veterinarian: veterinarian who has gone through rigorous testing process and can call himself or herself a "specialist" in avian medicine; use initials Dip-ABVP, Avian Practice

"Bopping": behavior in which parrots thump a human with the point of their beaks; may be playful, may be a bird generated termination stimulus; may be bluff (see lunging)

Bridge: sound or gesture used to form a connection between a behavior & a reinforcer (i.e., "clicker", whistle); also a conditioned reinforcer or a conditioned stimulus.

Cage-bound: behavior exhibited by a bird that is only comfortable inside its cage and refuses to exit 

Cavity breeder: birds that breed in a cavity (such as a hole in a tree) instead of building a freestanding nest

CITIES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; international agreement from 1984 that bans importation of listed animals and plant life into non-native countries

Clicker training: type of operant conditioning training that uses the sound of a mechanical "clicker" to bridge a desirous behavior with the reward for that behavior

Closed-banded: solid band that is slipped over a baby parrot’s foot while it is tiny; if properly sized, proves a bird was bred in captivity

Contact call: simple vocalization used to stay in touch with other flock members (parrot or human)

Coverts: small contour feathers that are found in rows on the wing and tail

Contour: predominant and largest feather that covers a bird’s body

Crèche: "baby flock"; nursery area in which some species of parrots (i.e., Gallah) deposit their young offspring

Crop: out-pocketing of the esophagus, used for temporary food storage

Detour compliance: Term coined by Cathy Isbell for a training approach that entails stepping around a problem instead of confronting it directly (i.e. remove cage territorial bird prior to servicing cage)

Developmental window:  time frame in which an animal might most easily develop a particular behavior; see Window of opportunity

Dimorphism: different colorations for male and female birds

DIP-ABVP, Avian Practice: initials after the name of a board-certified avian veterinarian

Direct attention:  one-on-one, in-your-face time where the human is doing nothing but interacting with the bird.

Displacement Behavior: a behavior substituted for an inaccessible behavior

Display: behavior associated with sexual or territorial show involving species-specific posturing   

Domesticated: captive bred for countless generations to enhance certain characteristics

Down command: cue for a parrot to step off the hand

Down feather: small, fluffy feathers that provide insulation under contour feathers

Drama reward: dramatic response from a human to a parrot’s negative behavior that inadvertently rewards that behavior

Earthquaking: a.k.a., "Little Earthquake"; Chris Davis’ technique of causing a parrot to momentarily lose its balance in response to aggression

Etiology: cause or origin of a disease or abnormal condition

Ethologist: someone with a graduate degree in the study of animal behavior in its natural habitat

Ethology: study of animal behavior in its natural habitat

"Evil Eye": a brief frown used as a form of positive punishment

Eye Flashing: a.k.a., pinning of the eyes; eye pinning; pinpointing; rapid voluntary dilation and contraction of bird’s pupils; indication of excitement (good or bad)

Feather Destructive Behavior [FDB] (a.k.a., barbering, chewing, picking, plucking, pulling): any behavior that damages feathers

Feather "fluffing": lay term for a bird shaking out its feathers; see rouse (falconer’s term)

Feather Tracks: the lines in which feather follicles grow on a bird’s body

Feces: waste from the G.I. tract (as opposed to urates and urine from the renal system)

Feral: untamed, wild; once tame but reverted to a wild state

Flash Color: a distinctive feather color pattern that identifies a bird from a distance; also used to communicate

Fledge: (verb) to learn to control flight

Fledgling: young bird that is learning to control its flight

Flight feather, primary: feathers for flight on outer edge of wing

Flight feather, secondary: feathers for flight on inner edge of wing

Flock Leader: term associated mainly with companion parrots to define the human who provides the most guidance

Flooding: to overcome an animal with a feared stimulus until the animal gives up

Food deprivation: 1. Weaning technique that entails withholding food from a hand feeding baby parrot in an effort to make it eat on its own; see weaning, forced; 2. a training technique in which food is withheld until an animal becomes hungry enough to work for food

Forage: searching for food

Full Spectrum Lighting: artificial (bulb-supplied) lighting that provides the entire spectrum of natural outdoor sunlight

Gavage Feeding: insertion of a tube into the crop (i.e. of baby parrot) for the purpose of rapid delivery of handfeeding formula (see tube feeding)

Grit: varying sizes of small shells, stones, rocks or pebbles provided to help songbirds grind their food; not considered necessary for parrots

Hand fed: parrot that as a baby was fed by a human, not another parrot

Height dominance: original name for theory that humans have more control over companion parrots if birds are not allowed above eye level; developed to explain increased aggression frequently seen in parrots that are above eye level

Height-related territorialism: newer name for theory to explain increased aggression frequently seen in parrots that are above eye level; see Height dominance

Honeymoon Period: nickname for period of adjustment when a parrot changes environments, prior to the bird establishing new territory and renewing old (problematic) behaviors; ideal time to establish new, less abrasive behaviors

Hormonal Behavior: a.k.a., reproductive hormone-mediated behavior; sexual or reproductive behavior

Imprinting: rapid learning process of some species of young animals, establishes a behavior pattern (as recognition of and attraction to its own kind or a substitute); instantaneous bond; in birds, seen in purest form only in precocial species.

Import, imported bird: parrot that is captured in the wild and brought into captivity

Incubator-hatched: eggs hatched in incubator rather than by natural parents

Indirect attention:  physical contact with the bird with divided attention.  Example:  bird is sitting in the human’s lap while the human watches TV.

Laddering: patterning exercise in which parrot is taught to step from one hand to the other; used by some as reprimand for aggressive behavior 

Leaf bathing: bathing technique; entails rubbing on wet leaf matter; more often seen in small species

Learning window: time frame in which an animal most easily learns a skill; also called Window of opportunity

Lunging: aggressive behavior in which parrots (i.e., macaws) make a quick thrust with their beaks; may be bluff (especially with macaws)

Model/rival method: teaching method developed to elicit behavior by rewarding a rival for modeling a desired behavior (i.e. Dr. Irene Pepperberg & Alex)

Monogamous: to have a pair bond with only one mate for at least one breeding cycle

Molt: natural shedding and replacement of worn feathers; frequency varies w/ species and individual condition and health

Monomorphism: both genders of a species are identical to the human eye

Mutation: Hereditary changes in genetic information which creates new characteristics in offspring (i.e., color mutation breeding)

Mutilation: see self-mutilation

Neonate: newly hatched or hatchling bird

Neutral Room: unfamiliar territory for parrot where no territory is established; considered by many as ideal training location

Night Fright: name given to extreme and traumatic fear behavior that occurs in the middle of the night; often response of vibrations, rodents or car lights flashing through windows (see thrashing)

Nurturing guidance: name for Sally Blanchard’s parrot training technique, a.k.a. guiding parrot behavior by teaching

Omnivore: animal that needs animal and vegetable protein (as opposed to carnivore or herbivore); eats "almost everything"

Open Banded: band closed around a parrot’s leg after bird is full-grown so it is not a complete or closed ring; see also split band; often identifies an imported bird that has come through quarantine

Parakeet: general name for group of small parrots with streamlined bodies and long tails; in US only, connotes budgerigar ["budgie"], which is a species of Australian grass parakeet.

Patterning: training process involving repeatedly stimulating and reinforcing a behavior; habituating a behavior

"Phobic" behavior: extreme, neurotic or so-called pathological fear; often of unknown etiology

Pecking order: dominance hierarchy first identified in poultry

Perch training: see stick training

Pinpointing: a.k.a., pinning of the eyes; eye pinning; eye flashing; voluntary rapid dilation and contraction of bird’s pupils; may signal excitement, interest, recognition, or aggression.

Preening: grooming feathers to clean and "re-zip" barbs of flight feathers for optimum flight potential

Powder: talc-like keratin substance given off by powder down feathers as they dissolve 

Powder down: specialized down feathers that are designed to disintegrate and produce a powder

Precocial: birds that are born ready to eat on their own (i.e., poultry, waterfowl)

Psittacine, Psittacine bird: parrot, hook-billed bird

Pumping:  the reflexive bobbing of a baby parrot’s head that is associated with being fed by a parrot or human; occasionally seen in older parrots

Quaking:  the monk or Quaker parrot specific solicitation and reflexive neonatal eating response

Quick: part of the nail that carries a blood supply

Quick Fix: any technique that addresses the symptoms of a problem rather than etiology of a problem (i.e., Elizabethan collar to prevent feather destruction; covering cage to stop excessive screaming)

Rachis: tubular central shaft of a feather

Regurgitation: bringing partially digested food up from the crop; may be pathological (i.e. in candida infections of the crop) or sexual (to feed a mate) or brooding behavior (to feed young); as opposed to vomiting

Regression: to revert to a previous state, often developmentally. 

Reinforce (verb): to reward to increase the likelihood of a behavior or response

Revert: to go back to a previous behavior or habit; often a response to stress

Reward: (noun) any item or behavior immediately provided for reinforcing a behavior. (verb) to reinforce for the purpose of increasing or ensuring the occurrence of a behavior

Rouse: falconer’s term for a bird shaking out its feathers; "feather fluffing"

Roost: where a bird sleeps, the act of getting ready to sleep

Self-Mutilation: self-injurious behavior in which parrot lacerates its skin and/or gouges soft tissue; likely etiology is physical but can continue due to secondary reinforcement; not to be confused with feather destruction

Sentient: capable of thought, self-awareness, consciousness; finely perceptive of feelings

Skritch: Sally Blanchard’s term for petting with deep, yet gentle ruffling of the feathers

Sleep cage: Andrew Luescher’s concept of a small cage in location unoccupied by humans at night, for purpose of enabling parrots necessary sleep

Socialization: process enabling young animals to learn social skills and social interaction with other life forms

Split Banded: band closed around a parrot’s leg after bird is full-grown so it is not a complete or closed ring; see also Open band

Step-ups: term for stepping a bird onto the hand; see also Up command

Stereotypical behaviors or Stereotypies: obsessively repetitive behaviors; considered evidence of extreme boredom, stress or mental illness

Stick-training:  teaching a parrot to step onto and off of a dowel or stick; see perch training

Stimulus: event or situation that initiates a response or reaction (see A-B-C)

Stress bar: break or line on a feather indicating the bird suffered (serious) stress at the time that part of the feather was growing

Syringe feeding: process developed for delivering hand feeding formula into the mouth of a baby parrot via a syringe (as opposed to, for example, spoon feeding)

"Terrible Twos": named after period of child development, a period of obstinacy in a parrot’s development, usually juvenile, not related to the bird being two years old

Territoriality: guarding one’s territory

Thrashing: extreme fear response in which a parrot throws itself around an enclosure in an effort to escape perceived danger; if happens in the dark, called "night fright"

"Time Out": removing the animal’s ability to receive positive reinforcement

Tube feeding: procedure in which tube is inserted into bird’s crop for rapid delivery of food; usually considered a medical procedure (see gavage feeding)

"Warm Potato" game: invented by Sally Blanchard, socialization exercise that encourages a parrot’s compliancy with all family members. The parrot is slowly passed around a circle of people. Each person steps the bird on the hand and praises the bird lavishly for complying. The bird is then passed to the next family member who repeats the exercise.

Weaning: period in which a parrot learns to support itself nutritionally without assistance

Weaning, forced: Trying to facilitate a baby parrot’s weaning through the withholding of handfeeding formula in the hopes that hunger will speed the process of food independence

Weaning reaction: unwanted behavior developed in response to situations occurring during weaning

Wild Bird Conservation Act: Legislation that stopped parrot importation into the US with ratification of CITES in the early 1993

Wild-caught: parrot that was captured from the wild and imported into the US prior to 1993

"Window of Opportunity": a period in a parrot’s life when learning most easily develops

Wing clipping: term given to grooming procedure in which flight feathers are clipped to decrease a parrot’s flight potential

Wobble correction: technique to reprimand a parrot after a bite by causing it to momentarily lose its balance 

Wobble distraction: technique to prevent a parrot from biting by distracting its attention with movement of the perch on which it is sitting

Printed with permission of IAABC.org