I had gone to bed and was just about asleep when I heard noises coming from the tiels. It was crying but not loud. When I went to Bitsy and Roscoe's cage, Bitsy was on the perch outside the nestbox with her head down, her tail up and her wings totally spread open. She was very sill. I talked to her and no movement, when I opened the cage and tried to touch her she acted like she was going to bite and then went back into position as looking at the bottom of the cage. Roscoe was outside the nestbox also. When Roscoe went near her, she snapped at him. I talked to her for a while, turned on the light and finally decided to leave her alone for a minute. I waited about 5 mins and went back. She was in the same position but after I talked to her for awhile she finally closed her wings and came over to me. I held her and she was shaking. She finally calmed down and I put her back in the cage. By now, Roscoe had decided to eat and she joined him. I put some soft food in the cage and they are eating.

I have checked the chicks a couple f times and they are all snuggled together and are warm. I am going to go and check everyone again.

Crazy behavior. She had been in the nestbox. Not sure if Roscoe was in or out as he had been sleeping in the nestbox but had come out before I went to bed.

This is natural behavior for cocockatiel who are breeding and have a nestbox. They do this to show other birds that this is their nesting area, and if (you) or other birds don't respect her boundrys, you are doomed to get bitten. I'm sorry she scared you, but whenever cockatiels have babies, its almost like a trance they go into. But usually, they snap out of it just as fast.

This sounds like night fright behavior to me. Not full-blown flapping around in a panic, but the stage just below that where they think something might be in the cage and they're looking for it and are ready for fight or flight. I see similar behavior in my birds sometimes right after a night fright, where I've turned on the light and they've calmed down enough to stop flapping, but are still nervous and wary. It takes a while for them to decide that it's safe after all.

Thank you so much. I stayed up until she went back in the nest box and I knew everything was ok. Nature is really amazing me. During the event I would check the chicks. They were all snuggled together with the youngest being on the bottom.

Night fright Id say...