The hormonal season has already started (got bit three times already). And yes, male Amazons can be holy terrors when hormonal, they will literally bite chunks out of you! The trick is to keep them to a strict natural daylight schedule so the behavior is limited to only the breeding season and no acute sexual frustration sets in (that's when they turn aggressive all the time which is what must have happened with his previous owners -the change in his living arrangement would have distracted him and stopped the sexual hormones for a while but they will soon resume -I am afraid that been or not been afraid of him has really not that much to do with it- this is not something they can control or decide upon, it's hormonal).

What I do is distract my male zon when he starts displaying by giving him a good bath. It's not the best training tool in the world because he loves baths and it would not do for him to think that I am rewarding his displays but, this way, I don't have to watch him all the time I am in the birdroom (he will come from behind and do the bite-and-fly routine nailing me on the back of my neck so I cannot dodge him -they are pretty smart!). He knows that when I start singing 'Singing in the rain' a bath will follow so, as soon as I see him fanning his tail and pinning his eyes, I start singing and go for the spray bottle and he would immediately stop and wait for his bath but you need to do it right when it starts so you can nip it in the bud. After a good, long, soaking bath, he spends a lot of time preening and it also has a calming effect on him so I usually don't have to worry the rest of the time I am in the birdroom. He is getting them on a daily basis these days... Flying also helps a lot. Teddy gets very distracted when we practice recall flight but he goes back to the behavior a few minutes after we stop and I cannot do anything else while we do it so it's not as practical as the bath. I also distract him by giving him something he likes to eat very much (like a favorite fruit) or a forbidden toy (like one of my hair bands).

Hi Wendy and Beatriz

Actually I have seen Burt doing the displays you have described. He usually does his display when I get home from work. I just took it he was angry with me for leaving him and nothing to do with hormones.
If I approach him and he is pin holing his eyes, and stomping about. I normally just walk away and ignore him. Then I go back about a minute later and he will get up on my fingers for a treat.
I found early on in our relationship that the way to Burt's hart was threw his stomach. So to train and socialize him I only give him his very favourite foods if he comes up on my finger and socialises with me. After he gets on my fingers and takes his treat I normally give him a cuddle. After that he is normally good all night.
At the beginning of our relationship I got a few nasty bights but now we seem to understand each other. I don’t know if he is hormonal yet, or if what I am doing is right. But we seem to enjoy each other’s company and as yet he hasn’t been overly aggressive and he hasn’t bitten me for about 4 or 5 months.
He is aggressive towards my wife, but he interacts with my son
.
Thanks for your advice it has helped me understand Burt better
Look forward to your future advice and comments.

All the best
Rob

Hi
You already know I don't have any experience with Zons but I would like to direct you to these to view & read:

Video
interview with Oasis Sybil Erden

Article + there are lots of articles to read at this site.
Sexual behavior

Thanks homebird

That was a very enlightening article and video it has definitely helped me understand bird behaviour and the interaction I should have with Burt.
I was stroking his back but that will definitely stop. When he steps up on my fingers he seems to feel unbalanced so I hold him into my chest with my other hand. I don’t stroke him or move my hand it is just to balance him, he seems to prefer being carried this way.
He has shown no inclination to rub on me or to feed me so I hope he dosent see me as a mate.
He lets my son handele him and scratch his head although he definitely shows favouritism towards me.
When he is aggressive towards my wife he doesn’t show any of the hormone displays, no tail fanning, no feather raising he just growls and my wife pulls her hand back, I think he likes doing it for the reaction he gets from her.
I live in Canada and the snow is still on the ground will Bert still go into his matting season now or is it influenced by the weather.

From my experience with Chico, I'd say that late winter weather may slow the onset a little, but probably not much. Here in northern Maine its still winter (for sure), but Chico (aka His Hormonal Majesty) is certainly feeling his spring oats! It can be difficult, for sure. Sometimes he's so sweet, and the next moment he might lunge at the side of the cage when I walk by. A minute later, he's ready for skritches again. Changing food and water dishes cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. Try not to take it personally, this is "hardwired" behavior, and hormonal male Zon's must defend their territory. I just ignore him when he's being a terror, and do all I can not to make a big deal about it. I stay out of reach and go about my business, but give him his space whenever possible.

Unfortunately, in Chico's case, his past life is pretty much a mystery. He's said to be around 20 years old, but I really have no idea. His seasonal behavior was evidently allowed to develop into learned behavior, so even out of season, you can't handle him without blood being drawn. It's quite evident that he was teased, tormented, and probably physically abused, and I don't know whether he'll ever be able to trust. Within his limits though, he really is quite sweet and I retain hope that someday he'll decide that he can let down his guard.

I can't add to the excellent advice you've already gotten regarding how you handle and pet him, lots of showers, plenty of dark sleep time, etc. Hang in there, this too shall pass. In the meantime, have a care for any parts of your body that'll fit into a beak!

Unless you are keeping him to a strict natural daylight schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk, it doesn't really matter where you are physically located because it has to do with the number of hours of light you are giving him. And it doesn't even have to be real bright light either. They've done studies that showed that 20 lux (enough light from a plain light bulb for a human to be able to read) is more than enough to bring birds into breeding condition. When a bird is kept all year round at 12 or more hours of light, he will be constantly producing sexual hormones... especially since their diets are so much higher in protein as they should be.

Well, sort of, roughly speaking. Equatorial regions receive just over 12 hours daylight every day year round, and I've never heard that equatorial parrots are in constant hormonal arousal. In fact, I'd be curious to know just what triggers hormones in equatorial species, its certainly not variation in length of day. At any rate, the variation grows from there as you head north or south, and your point is well taken. From 0 degrees latitude to 20 degrees latitude covers the majority of the Amazons home ranges, yielding seasonal differences of 0 to 2 hours. So we're not talking about huge ranges here; say 11 hours of daylight in the dead of winter to 13 hours of daylight in high summer (at 20 degrees latitude, which is about the northern edge of the range). In the more northern latitudes where many of us live, the variance can be 4 to 5 hours, which could be what gets us in trouble; the days are so dramatically longer from spring to autumn. If daylight shift is pivotal to hormonal onset, and it only takes a half hour to an hour increase to trigger it (based on the home range figures), then our higher latitudes with 14 to 15 hour summer days must really mess things up.

I suspect there's a lot more involved in the whole hormone issue than increase in daylight, for instance diet as you mentioned, but also other seasonal changes such as humidity (dry season-rainy season), changes in vegetation, seasonal peaks and dips in insect populations, etc. Perhaps the only thing left to trigger their biological clock, living as they do in our artificial environment with fairly constant temperature, humidity, diet, and so on, is the change in day length? I don't know the answer to that, but I find the whole thing pretty fascinating, and would love to study and learn more about it.

My birds are maybe not triggered too much by light as we are 26s just a bit more south than the tropic of capricorn. The day change is about 13.5 - 10.5 hours. The wild birds here seem to be triggered more by spring rains and the available food. My aviary could be triggered by the sudden renewal of spring and big change in temperature. We only really have two seasons. All the migrating birds returning from Europe etc.

Thanks every one for the interesting disscutions. I am all so fascinated by the hormone topic.

Dos any one know if parrots stop having hormonal episodes at a certain age or dos it continue with them all their life. I know parrots are supposed to be at there most hormonal at puberty, dos this decrease incrementally with age.

The best of life to you all
Rob

I am not sure it stops but the behavior become less intense, this is in reference to sun conure not zon.