Dealing with mood swings, sudden outbursts, anger issues and increased vocalization in your household? And your teenager can’t take any of the blame? It sounds like you have a hormonal bird!
Hormones seem to turn your bird for the worse. But rest assured, like teenagers, this to shall pass. Hormonal changes depend on your bird’s species and the time when that particular species breeding season starts. For lovebirds, usually late winter/early spring’ the urge to nest and they become increasingly territorial of their cage and other surroundings. Know your species in order to predict when your bird’s hormones swing into gear.
Signs To Look For
So how do you know when your birds are hormonal? There are certain signs to look for.
According to Karl Lieberman, BIRD TALK’s Finch and Canary columnist “Hormonal signs can be things like birds acting overly sexual in response to petting (on the back or wings). If your bird is regurgitating food frequently, panting, crouching down with wings dropped, those are all signs. A bird with a favorite person may be extra possessive of their chosen one while being extra aggressive toward others. They may also show an increased interest in cuttlebone or other calcium sources (especially female birds), as well as protein rich foods like egg or meat.”

Other Signs

• Increased shredding of paper or toys
• Increased chewing
• Nest-building or nesting
• Hiding in dark areas or holes and/or actively searching for them
• Aggression
• Possessiveness
• Increased vocalization
• Being territorial
• Masturbating

What To Do About It
To prevent certain hormonal behaviors, you can decrease the amount of light your bird gets everyday and deter your bird from actively seeking a nest or building one. If you have a bird that becomes increasingly aggressive, try to refocus its energy by providing more toys that it can destroy. Talk to a breeder or avian consultant for more tips on how to work with your bird during breeding season. But the most important thing to remember is that your bird is going through a change in its life, and with a little adjustment to your routine, you can both weather this interesting time of year.

Can't ya just feed them chocolate and Pringles?? Works for me... LOLOL!!!!!!!! :-)

Very happy to say...At my age, I don't need chocolate anymore.

I just love you to death! Don't those work just perfectly???? YUM!

Thanks Susan for the info.

Actually, I don't agree with the advice to reduce the number of daylight hours for a bird that has merely gone into a normal breeding season, I don't believe in messing with their endocrine system. I would do it for a chronic layer, in a temporary basis, just to stop her from becoming depleted but I would not do it for my own personal convenience.

Birds kept to a strict natural daylight schedule go into breeding condition during the spring and early summer only. It's a normal behavior and it should not be repressed because it's what nature intended for them to go through every year. Besides, you will find that you don't need to because when birds are not kept in a state of semi-arousal from too long days all year round and inadequate handling, breeding behaviors are not that extreme. There is a bit of display in the large species, some aggression in males (notable Amazons and Senegals) and nest protection by both male and female (all species) but it's not anything that cannot be dealt with just a few precautions. And, yes, this works for equatorial species, too. All birds are photoperiodic, even species that, in the wild, would live all year round on schedules of 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark and for which photoperiodism is not the main breeding trigger. And, no, it's not my personal opinion, it's what Drs. J. Dittami and E. Gwinner found out in their experiment with equatorial birds.