Being a bird owner, you might sometimes wonder if you have taken care of your cockatiel well enough. Let’s figure out how cockatiels show their happiness.

Whether your cockatiel feels happy or not will depend on how you take care and treat it every day. Feeding it a balanced diet, creating a clean living environment, and spending time socializing with it are the essential elements to have a healthy and happy cockatiel.

When bonding with you, your cockatiel will show its feelings very clearly. All its sounds and body language will allow you to know if it is showing affection to you. Frequent interaction and socialization are must if you want to increase the affection between you and your cockatiel, also make your bird happy. 

In this topic, we are going to figure out when a cockatiel is happy and how it presents that mood. Then, it is easier for you to be aware of that.

Signs of a happy cockatiel

Usually, when a cockatiel is happy, it will make some exciting noise, like chirping and singing, as well as movements like jumping. If the bird has a bond with you, it will be really happy to have you come and play with it. Also, the bird will not be shy to show affectionate actions like rubbing your arms to get your pet.

We are going to go into more details as below:

Making some interesting noise

In general, cockatiels are not really talkative, but they do use sounds to show their affection and happiness.

• Like a dog wagging its tails to greet its owner, the cockatiel will show its happiness to meet you by making excited noises. It could chirp, sing, or even hit the cage bars. The sound of beak grinding is also a sign of a happy and relaxed cockatiel. This often comes with fanned-out facial feathers and fluffed body feathers.

By contrast, if your bird keeps quiet with your approach, I am sorry it is not in the mood for your presence and interaction.

Expressing by body movement

Along with exciting noise, a happy cockatiel will also have its own body language to show its affection. It can move back and forth when you appear. Or even it jumps to the front of the cage to indicate it wants to let out to play. And it will bend down the head to have you pet it as usual. On the other hand, the cockatiel in a bad mood will just sit on the perch even when you reach out.

Normally, they will make noise and movements at the same time to show their happiness to be their owner. While singing, it can put on its mood, lift its wings and straighten up its upper body. They are excited to have their owner around and want to get full attention from their friend.

When your cockatiel is happy to be with you, it will do everything to impress you as its owner. It will show its affection towards you like the way with its courtship ritual. Once out of its cage, the cockatiel will show its happiness by the following actions:

• Flocking to your shoulder to perch
• Nibbling at your jewelry or play with your hair
• Grooming your eyebrows
• Doing nip gently rather than painful
• Their feathers in their head and jaw area get up
• The upper body raises slightly
• Their pupils are dilated.

Sign from its crest

Cockatiels’ crests can tell you a lot of their mood. When you see their crest is pressed back against their head, they must be cautious and on guard. It is quite similar when the cockatiels’ crest gets totally straight ahead to the head. They must be on high alert and suspicious then. But when a bird feels relaxed and happy, its crest lies in between. Reach out to your bird pet when it looks relaxed and inquisitive and shows signs of affection.

Cockatiel bonding signs

A happy cockatiel must have a bond with its owner. Let’s take a look at how your feathered friend shows its bonding with you.

It likes to be near you

A new cockatiel often appears cautious and scared of your approach. It takes you time and patience to build a bond with your bird. But when the cockatiel gets familiar with you and loves to be with you, it will become confident to have you around. It could climb or hang from the bars while begging to sit on your hand or shoulder. It also wants you to bob its head or strain its head towards you.

It intends to copy your actions

When a cockatiel stays with you long enough, you might notice that it often mirrors your actions. For example, seeing you napping, it also feels sleepy. Or it will head to its food and have some snacks when seeing you eating. And it dances along to your favorite song playing.

The cockatiel becomes excited about your appearance

When you return home after a working day away, the bird seeing you can bob its head and make some sounds to get your attention and get you to come to it.

Other birds can scold their owner because of leaving them by squawking aggressively. Whatever the birds do, they just want you to know that they really miss you.

Final thoughts

Cockatiels are showy birds that you can easily see in their moods. With this short article, I hope that you will have a deeper understanding of the signs of a happy cockatiel. This will let you know that you are doing well in taking care of this feathered friend. Their happiness and affection toward you, in vice versa, can make you happy as well.