They nest in a hollow in a trunk, or limb, of large eucalypt trees usually near water. Gang-gang Cockatoos are monogamous and form strong pair-bonds. Communicationīirds will make a contact call that sounds creaky and raspy, a lot like a “rusty hinge”. Here is an interesting video of a cockatiels mating ritual.Eucalypt seeds, insect larvae, berries, nuts, fruits of introduced species Hawthorne and Cotoneaster. If you alarm them as they are coming out, they sink back into the darkness of the box again. And no matter how tame they are around humans, they always seem very cautious about being seen as they come out of the box. One thing that I find really strange is that the cockatiels enter the box by going in tail first. The male in the meantime will chew around the entrance hole, and thus enlargen it slightly. Before the hen lays any eggs, she will have spent quite a bit of time in the box either chewing the inside of the wood or brooding at the eventual nesting site. The female will always approach with more caution, so he has to do all the investigations of the box before she will enter.īoth of them will spend many days coming and going from the nesting box. Judging by his attitude, it is obvious that he is trying to attract the attention of his hen to the box. When he gains enough courage to enter he will normally carry on singing once inside and may tap the box with his beak. It almost looks as though he is courting the box at times as he will sing and chortle with his wings flattened and his head lowered. He will hover about in its vicinity and look into the entrance hole. Usually, once the nest box is hung, the male begins to take a very great interest in it as may his hen, but to a lesser degree. If there is a nesting box in the cage, then you will see that most mating takes place shortly after the hen comes out of the box and this will happen several times a day during the breeding season.

The female will then take over by giving a continual squeaking sound. The actual pairing takes some time and while the male continues to sing as he mounts, he soon becomes quiet. He will normally advance and retreat a couple of times before doing this. She does this as the male approaches during one of his courting songs and he will merrily carry on singing as he steps directly onto her back. She holds her crest down and keeps her head twisted to the one side. The hen will eventually solicit mating by lowering herself onto the perch or ground with her wings slightly away from her body and she also flattens her back. Every now and again he will give a little jump as he carries on with his calls. To continue the cockatiels mating ritual, once the hen is on the ground the male will fussily follow it like a courting pigeon. This pose can also be done when cockatiels are soliciting a preen from one another. The hen will seem quite undisturbed most of the time by his antics as well as the other males in the cage.

They can also be perched when making their call, especially if in a smaller cage, and when doing so the wings are pulled away from the body thus giving the bird a sort of kite-shaped outline.Īt this time his crest is normally lowered while his head twists from side to side while he faces his hen. The males usually fly up and down in the aviary making this rather irritating high-pitched call with a persistence that is quite remarkable. In more mature cockatiels the song becomes extended and sounds like a bunch of twitterings and warblings.

It may sound like ‘cock-ee, cock-ee’ or ‘way-ee, way-ee’ or ‘joe-ey, joe-ey.’ Young male cockatiels from about three months old onwards start to give their mating ritual display call. Cockatiels Mating RitualĪ cockatiels mating ritual differs slightly from larger parrots. Let’s look at a cockatiels mating ritual so that we can understand the whole breeding process a bit better. How To Hatch An Egg – Naturally or Artificially.The Cockatiel Chick And The Dangers That Lie Ahead.Cockatiels And Other Pets – How To Mix Them.African Grey Parrot Facts – African Grey Parrots As Pets.Good Pets for Children – Are Parrots Good Pets for Children?.Does The Bare Eyed Cockatoo Make A Good Pet?.Another Of Those Rare Cockatiel Mutations – Thrush-Chested.The Lutino Cockatiel – How It Came About.Different Colors In Cockatiels And How They Came About?.

Goffin cockatoo mating call