I thought this was a special story... Enjoy!

The first preen from a parrot
By Bruce Byfield

Unlike cats and dogs, parrots are still wild animals. Although the CITES treaties have all but eliminated the export of wild birds, even now, few parrots are more than three or four generations removed from the wild. That fact alone means that getting a bird to accept you is very different from training most domestic animals. You don’t tame a parrot, or enforce more than temporary obedience. Rather, you reach a point where a bird decides to trust you.

My first experience with trust came with Ning, our first bird. I had been training him to step up on a stick and my hand, and he was learning, but it was a matter of persistence on my part more than anything else. To any unabused parrot, status is always negotiable, and, while Ning obeyed, nips to show his distaste for the exercise were not exactly unknown.

Then, one night, I was lying on the couch with Ning on my hand, when he suddenly looked as though he had made a decision and started waddling determinedly up my arm. Although Ning is a nanday conure, and not the largest of parrots, I was nervous as he touched the side of my head with his beak — as Diana Paxson once said to me, anybody with a five hundred drill press on their face automatically commands respect.

But instead of attacking me, he started delicately preening my sideburns. He spent the next twenty minutes on that side of my head, then moved on to the back. At one point, he paused to give me a desperate look, as if to say he hadn’t realized how large I was, but he kept on before giving up halfway through the second side of my head

The next night, he did it again. The night after that, when he was finished with me, he marched along the back of the couch to Trish and did the same to her. That’s when I knew that we were solid.

Since then, I’ve experience the first preen from a parrot many times. At times, it is a delicate preen of the eyelids, as it was with Sophy, the only bird I trust to do that. At others, as with poor abused Jabberwock, it was a gentle preening of my forelock, followed by sitting, nose to beak for minutes at a time. With fledglings, it’s combined with the strangely boneless slump of a content and perfectly trusting parrot. Last year, the first preen came from Beaudin, our latest rescue.

The whole experience is very much like earning the trust of a two year old child — and, if you think that sentimental, take a moment to search out Irene Pepperberg’s work with African Grays like Alex: parrots really do have the intelligence of a young child, and that clearly makes them sentient beings.

Perhaps that is what makes the trust of a parrot so special to me. Far more than with a dog or a cat – who are semi-sentient, but not in a parrot’s class — it is a trust based on an evaluation of my trustworthiness. I’ve experienced that moment many time in my life, and it always leaves me excited, humbled, and more than a little honored.

Source: The first preen from a parrot « Off the Wall

What a sweet story!

THAT IS A GREAT STORY!!!! I remember the first time my TOO preened me. She got right up to my face and started on my eye lashes. Needless to say I was a bit aprehensive. She did one eye and the stepped back and put her head down. So I proceeded to do her head and neck. When I stopped she started on my other eye. So now we have a ritual whether it is eyelashes or hair or necks or under wings or top of heads(both of ours). It's a great feeling to have that mutual trust. Thanks for sharing.

what a nice story....

i guess that's exactly what non-bird people don't understand.... HOW much it means when they come up and preen you and rub their little heads against your face... it's simply priceless (and worth every little poopy and nip and screatch)....

That's a great story.

That's what I tell my friends and family who never owned a parrot. They are wild animals, and it's a gift, and a wonderful feeling to be acepted in thier world. It's a true sign of trust & love, on both sides, and it's something you can't quite understand until it happens to you..

Usually Pita preens me by surprise...lol I'll be sitting on the couch, and he'll come down from his cage, and sneak up on me, and just start preening. I love it! Or when I'm on the computer, he'll be on my shoulder, and start tickling my ear, which makes me laugh, which makes him laugh, which makes me laugh harder...etc etc etc......It goes on for about 30 minutes....I usually have tears in my eyes from laughing, because in between the preening and tickling, he mumbles in my ear "good boy", Peek-a-boo", quacks, and kisses.....lol

AWSOME STORY!!! How sweet is that!?

I think the author did an excellent job of describing the bond that can develop between a bird and the human it decides to trust. I'm still working on that with a 52 year old red lored amazon who suddenly became homeless a few weeks ago. We've progressed to me holding her on my chest, but only because she's being tolerant. I hope one day...
Kathy

Really beautiful. Whenever Humph preens me, I am touched as well.

Last night I was going to recommend a book for us bird people, and this essay reminds me of a certain passage from that book. The book is "Providence of a Sparrow" by Chris Chester, and I can't recommend it more highly. In one part, his rescued sparrow flies to him for the first time:

After staring at me for a minute, B flew from the bookcase to my shoulder and has, in a manner of speaking, never really left it. I can close my eyes or stare into space and relive the surprise and delight of an instant when the order of things reversed and a bird flew to me instead of away. Since that day, I've tried without success to explain the significance of that moment in a way that makes sense to those of my friends who view this whole 'bird thing' as proof I'm delusional...."