5 Easy Bird Tricks You Can Teach Right Now

Birds are highly intelligent animals, in particular the ravens, cockatoos and parrots. Due to their heightened visual and auditory senses, you can easily teach your bird tricks that will sure be a household entertainment hit.

Each individual bird and species has their own set of behaviors, personalities and level of intelligence that influence training. As a trainer, we must admit it does take consistent effort, commitment, patience but trust me, it will all be worth it.

There are a few ways to train birds to perform tricks including negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. The most effective is positive reinforcement which is the introduction of an object to encourage a behavior. For birds, food treats (e.g. nuts – almond, peanut, macadamia) are the easiest reinforcers to use.

Additionally, for a better response rate, you can choose to supplement this form of training with bridging. Bridging signals to the bird that they have successfully completed a task and acts as a trigger to receive their reward. Examples of bridging stimulus include a clicker, whistle, clap or simply saying “good boy” or “good girl”.

Finally the most important aspect is to NEVER FORCE your bird to do anything. This will only result in a deterioration of your bond between you and your bird as well as loss of trust.

For the purposes of our how-to guide below, the bridging stimulus we will use is clicking and the positive reinforcer will be a quarter of an almond.

Step Up

1. Position yourself so your bird is at chest level facing you
2. Hold your hand in front of the bird (3cm away) at their abdomen level with palm of hand facing towards you. Tuck in your thumb so your bird cannot bite.
3. If your bird is comfortable with the positioning then sound the clicker and offer the almond. Conversely, if your bird attempts to bite, slowly retract your hand and reintroduce at a further distance away.
4. Repeat step 3 – 4 until you are close enough
5. Next, show your bird the almond slightly at a distance (between your chest and hand). This will encourage the bird to step onto your hand in order to grab the treat.
6. If the bird refuses to perch on your hand, do not force them or follow them with your hand. Retract your hand, take a small 10 second break and reattempt.
7. Once the bird has completed the step-up, sound the clicker and offer the reward.

Optional: Introduce the phrase “Step Up” at step 6

Waving

This is very similar to the process of teaching Step Up but instead of using the phrase “step up” we’re now going to switch to “wave“.

1. Position yourself so your bird is at chest level facing you
2. Hold your hand in front of the bird (3cm away) at their abdomen level with palm of hand facing towards you.
3. If your bird is comfortable with the positioning then sound the clicker and offer the almond. Conversely, if your bird attempts to bite, slowly retract your hand and reintroduce at a further distance away.
4. Repeat step 3 – 4 until you are close enough
5. Next, show your bird the almond slightly at a distance (between your chest and hand). This will encourage the bird to step onto your hand in order to grab the treat.
6. Just before your bird attempts to step onto your hand say “wave”, sound the clicker and offer the almond
7. Repeat step 6 however this time do not let the bird step onto your hand. Remove the hand slowly and the birds foot will remain momentarily in the air – this known as a wave.
8. Repeat step 7 until you no longer need to provide your hand. The “wave” cue should be enough.

Turn Around

1. Ensure your bird is perched on a steady surface
2. Dangle an almond at eye level of your bird (ensure out of reach)
3. Move the almond slowly in a circular motion and say “turn around”
4. Your bird should rotate to follow the almond, once at 180 degree, sound the clicker and offer the almond
5. Repeat step 2 – 4 until your bird has rotated 360 degrees, Viola!

Sit on Shoulder

This is an extension of the Step Up command.

1. Once your bird is comfortable resting on your hand, slowly transfer them to your shoulder
2. Let them rest for a few seconds before sounding the clicker and offering the almond
3. Repeat until your bird is able to perch on your shoulder for at least 2 minutes

Talking

Talking or mimicking ability is highly dependent on the type of species you keep as a pet. Common species include budgies, macaws or Amazon parrots. The most impressive is the African Grey Parrot that can converse in phrases.

1. Choose one simple phrase/word
2. Say the word/phrase to your bird on a regular basis. Choose a time of day when the bird is alert and excited.
3. Reward your bird each time they repeat your selected phrase/word
4. Repeat with new words or phrases