Hello everyone!
Let's start with a little background, shall we?

As some of you may remember, I got Timber, a black-headed caique, nearly 2 weeks ago. He is approx. 5 years old. He's a rehome, from an un-abusive home situation that had a flock of 13 or so other birds of every shape and size. The woman I got this bird from said that she was having some medical issues that were causing her to reduce the size of her flock, and she felt that Timber would more easily adjust to a new home. I do not know what is going on with this bird.

When I first went to meet him, before I made any decision to get him, he was a hoot. He acted very happy, loved my hair (of course) and just jived really well with both me and my husband. When his owner came to take him back to his cage, he even tried to lean away from her so that he could stay with us. Now he is exhibiting some very contradictory behaviors that I just don't understand.

Mainly, he's been biting for blood. The occasions on which this has happened have no precursors for the bite either. Ex. I was giving him a pepper seed through the bars of his cage. He reached for it, but it fell off my finger. I picked it up without a fuss and offered it again. WHAMO!! Another example: while holding him, we will sometimes ask him to hang upside down. Normally, all is fine. After he flips over, very slowly, we put our hand underneath him where he can see it, then slowly raise it so that he is laying on his back on our hand. I was going through this like normal, only this time, he saw my hand underneath him, half let go of my hand in order to bite the one below him. He couldn't reach that one, so he flung himself back up and again, WHAMO! He doesn't get all the way around my finger either. He aims to pinch the skin off, which he nearly did. He'll really only do this to me, and not my husband. Yes, I understand that birds can be quirky like that, but there's more to the story.

The part I don't understand is that when I leave the room, or go out of sight, he'll WHINE and whistle and call for me to come back. This happens whether or not someone else is still in the room with him, including my husband. He'll also run down to the bottom of his cage and stick his head up against the bars, asking me to pet him. If I do go pet him, usually he has no problem with it and seems to really enjoy it. He'll even do this weird thing where he grabs the bars of his cage with his beak, flips around so that is back is against them, takes one foot, grabs the other with it, and starts pumping them up and down really fast. He only does this when we leave.

Lastly, he always is trying to regurgitate for BOTH of us.

After reading my novel, does anyone have any insight on this, or need more info?

Well, part of it I think is that he's trying to choose one of you for his 'mate'

When he bites you is someone close to you? Like your husband. He may be trying to protect you...(ya I know ) and making you move away from his preceived threat.

I know a caique bite can hurt like the dickens I've had a few in my time by a male bird who was REALLY HORMONAL.

Since you've only had him a few weeks, it could be that he's trying to establish a pecking order to his liking. Which you really can't allow. So what I suggest you doing and its gonna mean you're going to be bitten a few more times I'm sure. Take the bite, make no reaction if you can help it, push into the bite (up and in toward the back of his head) this will keep it from hurting so much for one thing, but it will also help to cause him to lose his balance and hopefully he'll let go .

Don't allow him on your head, or shoulders, That's only for the privileged and at this point he isn't. He has to learn that he's low man on the totem pole and as strong willed as these guys can be at times, it might take a while for him to get it through his little black head.

Hang in there, ride the storm, they're really very sweet birds once they figure out who's boss.

You might also lessen the amount of daylight hours to help the hormonal issues as well.

Good Luck and keep us posted on the progress.

Sorry, I didn't read your post......I am one of those who really wants a caique, but it will have to be given to me......I hope your problems ae not overwhelming......

Thanks for your reply!
He doesn't always bite when someone is around. The worst one he did was around my husband, but really, it doesn't seem to matter.

You're right - my shoulder is ONLY for the privileged. Not to mention, I don't really feel like getting my ear torn off or something similar. The only time he was on my shoulder was one time after a shower, and he had been pretty good lately with lessened biting. I was wearing a heavy robe and towel on my head/around my neck. I wanted to see if he would hairsurf - he did; it was hilarious. However, until he shapes up, it's not going to happen again.

I tried covering him up for the night, but he acted VERY scared of the blanket over his cage. He previous owner never covered his cage for the night. I'll try working on it in steps to cover it up.

I was dissappointed to find out from his previous owner that he has never been overly playful, or even hops like normal caiques. She said that she thinks it's from the place that she got him from - saying that he probably wasn't often played with in his formative years. Now, I rarely see him play. I know he plays with his toys while we're gone, because they've clearly been chewed on, but he won't really play with us. All he wants to do is explore. He does make this really cute "oooooo" noise when he finds something. He sounds exactly like R2-D2.

And you're right. His bite does hurt like the dickens. Combine that with a sudden bite out of nowhere and you get a bird flung half-way across the room out of sheer reflex. I know, don't react to the bite. I'd like to see someone try! (This isn't meant to be mean; please "hear" the sarcasm! ) stupid little monster.....I've never sworn so much in my entire life, by the way.

Is he gonna start thinking his name is 'You little @#$%^SOB??'

Seriously, now that I see some of the posts you have and PMs you've sent, I guess I'm GLAD I din't get the little chit. Anyway, I'm sorry he's being such a little pig about the move ... hopefully, he'll soon figure out that it was a GOOD thing for him.

Have fun with him ... when he finally settles in ...

I know exactly what you thinking. LOL

It could also be that this "settling in" period or the "honeymoon period" was very short lived and he's definitely trying to find out what he can and can't get away with. When you have him out and he's naughty, don't put him back in his cage he's comfortable there. Put him someplace else, a play stand etc where he gets to think about things for a minute or two.

Now we'll know who's saying it when we see &#@%*%#!!! floating across the sky to the east of us. LOL

Hopefully it will get better. Be firm with this little guy and set your boundries.

Yeah, I think the honeymoon period consisted of the first time we went to see him. Little $&!#!*& profanity profanity profanity....

Aw, caiques can certainly be overwhelming!

One of things you have watch for with caiques is that they don't get over stimulated. Once they get too riled up, they bite easily. One of the best ways to tell if they are getting over stimulated is to watch their eyes. If they are pinning a lot, give them some space to calm down. They don't mean to be unpredictable jerks, but it happens. Once they are worked up all bets are off. Eventually, you'll get better at reading his body language and learning his limits. You should be able to nip over aggressive playing in the bud.

Also, my Monet (2 1/2 year old female white belly) sounds similar to your guy in that she's not very good at playing when people are around. We've worked with her though and she's slowly getting more and more independent. But she's AWFUL about screaming/whining when we're not in her room with her. I would suggest working on getting your guy to play as soon as possible, just because caiques can be so loud and obnoxious that you want to nip this in the bud. One thing to try is to give him a variety of toys. Some of our birds (Marshall, Dale) love wood. They'll eat whole toys in an entire day. Monet likes paper shreddables and cottons. Grace loves bright plastic and fleece. Pablo prefers foot toys... they have all different types of toys in their cage, but I always make sure they have one of their favorite types while the other kinds I'll rotate. So your bird will probably have a kind of toy that he draw to more than others. Use that as a stepping stone for helping him explore other toys. For example, Georgia loves bells so I try to add bells to lots of her new toys to trick her into trying them out. Or I'll put bright plastic pieces on a leather toy for Grace.

Finally, I think he just needs time. Moving to a new home is stressful, and it makes sense that he would be acting out and feeling uncertain. While its important to be understanding, you are absolutely right to start working on these behaviors right away. You don't want to encourage habits that you know won't be tolerated later.

Good luck! I think you'll be amazed at what time and consistency will do.

I can't add anything, just wanted to show my support! I hope it gets better. Hang in there. I'm sure he'll soon come around