Clyde would much rather not climb on a hand -- he wants you to back up to his cage with your shoulder and he'll hop right on. I think at some time someone must've done something to him to make him a little afraid of hands.

That being said, once he's on the shoulder, he loves to lean close and lay his beak against your cheek and go "awwwww." It's so funny. However, his beak is very warm and I got to worrying, as a new parrot parent, that it shouldn't be that warm. Of course, it's summer and we don't have air conditioning, so EVERYTHING is warm around here.

Puffy's beak is sometimes warm and sometimes not. If she's just been sleeping with it tucked into her wing is quite toasty...could be the same thing with Clyde. Quakers have lots of blood vessels in their beaks, and if it's hot perhaps that's how they cool down, i'm not really sure. If you're worried your little guy isn't handling the heat well, try offering him a luke warm bath.

The heat doesn't bother him in the least and he's not the least bit interested in a bath. I've tried dribbling water onto him and splashing around in water in the sink and putting a bowl or flat dish of water in his cage in case he prefers privacy for his ablutions and he's just determined to be a dirty bird. He will endure the water dribbling but he doesn't really like it. He makes a certain grumbling sound when he's annoyed and he does that sound and peers at me like, "WHAT do you think you're DOING???" And he doesn't act like he doesn't feel well or anything. In fact, he's so full of vim and vigor he wears the rest of us out. I just wanted to be sure his beak was supposed to be warm. I'm a dog person -- I expect cold and wet.

Warm and dry is normal with a Q ... the picture of him giving you beak kisses on the cheek sounds so sweet

It IS sweet, even if he poos on me every time he rides around on my shoulder. The last couple of days he has decided he must sit on top of my head and examine my scalp very carefully while keeping up a running commentary on what he thinks of it. I sit there thinking, "PLEASE don't poo in my hair!" LOL

Tonight he also decided he had to sit on my arm instead of my shoulder for a while, and he was leaning over as if he intended to gnaw on my hand, only he stuck his tongue out and looked like he was trying to taste my hand. I couldn't figure out if that was another form of kisses or he thought there might be something to eat there.