# Wing Twitching / Territorialism



## Fabio

Hello everyone! 

I'm new to this forum, though I've been reading a lot of it lately - It's a great source of information! - so please apologize if this very matter has been discussed here before.

Now, I do know that wing twitching is quite usual for most dove species, but I had only seen this behavior so far on bonded pairs. 

Voodoo is this new dove which a friend gave me. He's 1 and a half year old male Java. He lives on a separate cage from the other birds, since they are all paired and I didn't find a partner for him yet (Its insanely difficult to find white Javas over here). He's been with me for about a month now, during which I've been doing the usual training and getting him to know and trust me, which he accepted very well. In fact, within two weeks he was already flying to me on command.

In the last 5 days or so, however, he's been acting a little odd. When I try to take him for the usual hand feeding session in the morning and when I'm refilling his food dish in the afternoon he acts all stressed out, doing bow coos as to show that I'm intruding his territory and pecking really hard at me. 

When I insist and take him to perch on my hand, though, he calms down and goes back to normal, except after 10 minutes or less sitting on my hand or shoulder his wings will start twitching really fast, then he bows down, stays with his head held low, and coos non-stop for a long time. I also noticed that when he's doing this he doesn't drop anything (I take him out for about one hour in the morning, during whih he would usually drop 3 to 4 times) and will eat almost nothing. 

Sometimes he just twitches his wings and lightly pecks my fingers or neck from time to time (As if preening me), without all the bowing and cooing. 

On the first day he did that, I thought the shaking indicated he was afraid of something. Perhaps my living room's sofa, which is red, and took him to another room. He stopped, but not for long. 

After doing some research over the PT forum and some other websites, I came to find that this is a sign that bonding has taken place between the dove and I, and the nearly non-stop twitches when I'm nearby are a sign of affection from the bird, as when he's 'preening' my hand or neck. Quite undesrtandable, since he's never had a female partner and this friend who gave me the bird didn't spend much quality time with him. 

But what's really quizzing me out is that even when I put him back into the cage he will most likely bow down, stay with his head as low as possible on the ground of the cage, coo and wing-twitch for extended periods of time. He eventually stops and goes back to his usual stuff, but does the bow cooing and wing twitching even if I'm not nearby. That and the aggressive behavior in the morning or when I come to refill the food / take him out for some exercise. 

I'm quite puzzled, since I've had other signs that he bonded with me really well, like the fact that if I'm in the room his cage is located at and someone comes in and I give that person attention, he gets all agitated doing bow coos and a high pitched, agressive-sounding "laughing" (You know what I mean), like he's jealous of my divided attention. Is this cute or what?  

So, what do you people think is going on? I know for a fact that birds, like all other animals, have their own personalities and idiossincrasies, but these recent behavior changes have me intrigued. 

FYI, I haven't made any changes in the environment, moved the cages to another place, changed the water or food locations or whatever else could motivate stress on the bird. 

My only theory for the agressive behavior is that due to the fact I feed my birds twice a day (In the morning and in the afternoon), he gets mad when running out of food and perhaps thinks I'll take out the few that is still left. Even to me this theory sunds dumb, though, since my other four doves have always been okay with this feeding scheddule.

Thank you all in advance and have an awesome weekend.


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## Libis

Fabio said:


> But what's really quizzing me out is that even when I put him back into the cage he will most likely bow down, stay with his head as low as possible on the ground of the cage, coo and wing-twitch for extended periods of time. He eventually stops and goes back to his usual stuff, but does the bow cooing and wing twitching even if I'm not nearby. That and the aggressive behavior in the morning or when I come to refill the food / take him out for some exercise.


Edmund (my ringneck dove) spends half the day doing this if his girlfriend is ignoring him. He even sticks his beak through the grating to the furthest bottom part of the cage. He'll do this for hours on end if she doesn't come over and pay attention. 

My guess with the aggressive behavior is perhaps he's trying to drive you to nest? Maybe others with single birds have more experience with this though. The whole time Edmund was single before I brought home Lita, he never behaved quite like that. He can be a bit pushy with her sometimes, though. 


Fabio said:


> I'm quite puzzled, since I've had other signs that he bonded with me really well, like the fact that if I'm in the room his cage is located at and someone comes in and I give that person attention, he gets all agitated doing bow coos and a high pitched, agressive-sounding "laughing" (You know what I mean), like he's jealous of my divided attention. Is this cute or what?
> 
> So, what do you people think is going on? I know for a fact that birds, like all other animals, have their own personalities and idiossincrasies, but these recent behavior changes have me intrigued.
> 
> FYI, I haven't made any changes in the environment, moved the cages to another place, changed the water or food locations or whatever else could motivate stress on the bird.
> 
> My only theory for the agressive behavior is that due to the fact I feed my birds twice a day (In the morning and in the afternoon), he gets mad when running out of food and perhaps thinks I'll take out the few that is still left. Even to me this theory sunds dumb, though, since my other four doves have always been okay with this feeding scheddule.
> 
> Thank you all in advance and have an awesome weekend.


I don't think it's food related, though I probably overfeed my doves--since they hardly ever run out during the day. 
It will be interesting to see what more experienced people here have to say, but my best guess is that this is all related to him seeing you as his mate.


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## Fabio

Thank you very much for the input, Libis. Him seeing me as his mate sounds quite a reasonable explanation. Too bad I have no way to tell him I can't lay eggs 

On the other hand, he still does twitch a lot when perching on my hand or shoulder. Oh, well.


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## Libis

Well, if you're his mate, he's probably going to try to woo you while he's close to you, too--thus the twitching while on your hand.

I wonder what would happen if you gave him some dummy eggs and a nest? I'm guessing it would either chill him out, or make him more aggressive. I've never tried that before, so I'm not sure.


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## Fabio

I was thinking too about giving him a nest and dummy eggs to see what'd happen, but I'm no sure if he'd get over-protective over them, or maybe even stay atop of the eggs all day long, since there's no partner to change shifts. Or even get somewhat depressed upon learning they won't hatch. 

I brought him to my office and gave him some strips of paper. He's playing with them and sometimes bringing me some, as if saying "There. Now go build us a nest!" 

By the way, he was humping my shoulder as I brought him over, haha.


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## Libis

I'd say you're his mate then lol. 

I don't think it would depress him for them not to hatch--bad eggs are a part of nature. But, if he thought you weren't taking your turn and he had to sit all day and all night I can see where that could be a problem.

lol. Ed likes to play with the sticks left after his millet sprays are gone in the same manner.


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## Fabio

I see. Giving him a nest is out of question, then. I guess I can bear him thinking I'm his partner for a while, lol 

I'm less worried now, I was thinking that I could be doing something that was irritating him, since he's only been with me for about a month. 

What confused me the most was not all the twitching (despite the long hours he does it for), but his agressive manners when I come to take him out for exercise. I found so ironic that he would seem all mad at me but still fly back to my hand when called, haha.


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## Fabio

I just stumbled upon a thread about a very similar issue that I was having.

So I guss it is all about Voodoo showing affection and courting me. As I have further observed throughout this day, it really shows.

Gotta find him a wife ASAP, then.


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