I think that a common behavior trait in any male bird is their narcissism. If you have ever put your male bird in front of a mirror, then you should most likely know what I'm talking about.

This cockatiel though, seems to be REALLY attracted to himself. "K.C." compliments his reflection, calling it "baby", "pretty bird", and giving it lots of kisses. He also talks about "rubs", which I assume is what the owner calls scritches. Then he beautifully serenades his reflection with a lullaby.



Just gotta say, cockatiel voices are the funniest sounding, in my opinion.

I've had some narcissistic birds, myself. My canary loved his reflection so much, he would sleep with it. Pecky the cockatiel was also into his reflection. He loved the mirror toys more than anything else. Strangely enough, some of the other males I've had, never displayed that kind of behavior. Dudley was more interested in killing his reflection, though that's probably because he's more territorial.

I have seen that video before and hand to god, Coyote does something very similar. He does more whistling but he sprinkles in a good amount of pretty birds and you're a pretty bird and whatcha doin? Dang, I really need to figure out how to get this on video but when he sees my phone it's like he just completely switches gears from talking/whistling to ATTACK THAT THING NOW AND WITH MUCH ANGER!

In a way, I know the feeling. If I want to take a picture of any of my animals, they will get up and walk away (or just not hold still) the second my camera is out.

Have you tried recording zoomed in from a distance? For example: other end of the room?

No. Because 1) I hate having too much of my "life" in the background and b) his normal access to a good sized mirror is on while on my shoulder. I really do need to get a new video of him. He whistles the good the bad and the ugly and now I'm trying to teach him the west coast whistle part of that old Dr. Dre song Nuthin' But a G Thang. If he can get that down pat, I will be following him around with my phone endlessly (killer cockatiel attacks be damned!) until I can get it on video because that would be frickin' EPIC.

You could try conditioning him to the phone, Let him get all the aggression out of his system until he calms down, give him a treat, and pull the phone away. Sometimes, giving the treat isn't neccessary, since just removing the scary thing is reward enough. You know you've won when it's in biting distance, and he ignores it completely.

We have to consider the possibility that he ENJOYS attacking the phone. Sometimes birds like to slam things around just for the fun of it, and the phone might be a "love to hate it" object for him.

Vlad turns ferocious when he has a nestbox to guard, and before I can do anything in the cage or the nestbox I have to have a tussle with him. We either play matador with a towel that I use to catch him after a few seconds of letting him wrestle with it (this is the Tuffy the Toro game), or I put on a gardening glove that he can jump on and bite the heck out it of while I take my hand out of the cage with him on it. I swear he seems to enjoy it. Once in a while he even breaks out into happy chirps during the fight.

Rocky loves to play the matador game... Well let's say that I love to see Rocky being silly
He is so furious and single-minded in his hate, I am even able to scratch his head and clean his crest (two absolute no-nos) while he's gnawing the towel... Talk about tunnel vision!

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I still consider myself very new to the world of birds and this stuff just cracks me up. They are so different from cats and dogs. This Love To Hate thing kills me. Coyote totally has that kind of attitude towards life. If you don't know for a fact that you 100% love it then DIE THE DEATH OF A THOUSAND PECKS, IPHONE OF SATAN.