New Boy, which I think I will call Bruce or Silver (I know, crappy names but I can't come up with anything better), has been doing a lot of progress towards civilization.
After the affront of being toweled he was really in a bad mood and hated me. I adopted the strategy suggested and bugged him to hop on the stick at night time and he decided that the best thing to do was to go to bed on his own. He really surprised me with how fast he learned it!
Now I do the same with Sesamo and as soon as they see the lights dimming and the stick appearing they are flying to their respective cages. Brilliant. They are not afraid of the stick: they just refuse to step up... pig headed like their mom

He also started to get curious about what goes on outside the bird room; originally I only had Bubu being an appendix, then Keith joined, then of course Darcy who has to go wherever Bubu goes (none of my strategies had a long term effect unfortunately), now New Boy has to ride on my shoulder too.
This is also brilliant, in itself, as he was not exactly Mr Social in his previous life; seeing him wanting to join in is great, but his behaviour towards me is really baffling.

He lands on my lap or my shoulder, and even though he grinds his beak and naps (so I guess he's content to be there) he will fake-bite me on the hands, the neck, the chin, whatever part of me is closer to him.
I don't know how to explain this fake biting, at the beginning I was wary because I thought he'd bite my face off, but what he does is the motion of lunging but with the beak open, a bit like headbutting me while hissing a little bit.
I completely ignore him but I don't know if that's the right strategy.
I thought that ignoring him he'd grow tired of doing it, but no he still does it.
It's not hurting me in any way but I am afraid it can escalate in full blown biting. I have never had another tiel doing that before so I don't understand why he's doing it and how this behaviour is gonna evolve.

Have you guys ever had a bird who was being aggressive without actually hurting you? What did you do to help him overcome this stage?
He is doing so brilliantly, I don't want to do anything that might compromise all the progress. He really is a character, reminds me of George a little, he was a bigger than life total crazy bird, but he was so affectionate at the same time!

A lot of cockatiels will fake-bite when they're not happy about something, and they usually don't escalate to real biting unless you're doing something that seriously annoys them. Ignoring him is good. He needs to learn that it's his job to take a step back if he thinks your head is too close, because there's not much that you can do to move the head away from him.

I have a bird like that Barbra. She (it could be a he, refer to my thread, "Embarrasing question") will fake bite every time I try to get her to step up. She also backs up, and acts like she doesn't want to obey. I have been giving her treats like millet and crackers since November, but nothing has changed. I know she was abused, but I don't know what else to do.