Shoulder buddy

Whether or not to allow your bird on your shoulder can become a heated topic when you go on parrot-related forums. I've always believed that the most important thing is to know your bird before making the decision to allow it to perch there or not.

Part of the "problem" is that being on the shoulder gets them direct access to your face - something that could end up being dangerous.

In my flock, I'll allow Piper, Shade and Pixel access to my shoulder with no restriction - I know them well enough and they have never shown any inclination to aggressive tendencies while up there.

Zuri I'll allow depending on his body language. When he's calm, I have no problems and he'll generally sit there preening my hair. If he's feeling hi-strung, he's not allowed.

Joey lost the privilege a while ago since he would always try to go after my ears. He can change his mood on a flip of a dime, so with him, I have a "always in front of me" policy so that I can see the change.

Petey wants nothing to do with me and the times where he does fly to me, it's not to sit nicely..

That leaves us with Léa. Because she's still a baby, I'm not reinforcing having her sitting on my shoulder - I don't know what she'll be like older so until I get a better grasp of her full personality, the shoulder is mostly off limits. She's allowed there when it's to transition from one thing to another (she'll stay all of 5 seconds) or when it's late and she wants to sleep. Other than that..well she doesn't really sit still the rest of the time so it's never really been an issue.