Bird preferences based on sex?

[eudaimonia]

Hello,

Our bird preferes me to my wife, and a lot of people say this is because the bird is female (we have evidence to believe this) and I am male. Is there anything to this? The bird likes my wife enough, but if I walk in the room she immediately flys from my wife to me. Needless to say, it does add a little bit of friction to the human relationship.:roll: I just say that it's all because I'm the one who cleans the cage every week!:whistle:

[graushill]

In my home country we usually say the same thing: female birds prefer men and male bird prefer women :), but I think it's more of a myth than anything else.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say it could be because you're the one that cleans your bird's cage since they do notice and if you're her primary caregiver then it's only natural she'll feel safer with you. I understand if your wife feels a bit hurt though. I'm my birds' primary caregiver and even though there are some that indeed prefer me to my husband, there are a few (cough traitors cough) that seem to think my husband is the sun and the moon and the stars:roll:. Nah, I'm just kidding, but it's true that some of them prefer him to me and it's difficult to explain it with the familiarity rule since I do spend much more time with them than he does. It could be because he's taller and when they fly to him they get a higher perch, or because they like his voice (which is much deeper than mine) or because he moves much more calmly than I do, and hence they feel safer with him than with me. It's hard to tell what goes on in that birdy brain of theirs :D .

Gloria

[BarbieH]

I know some of our birds prefer my husband, and some prefer me. It might be gender related but I'm not 100% sure. For example:

Gracie: Will always go to Tim if he's there, but she's pretty happy with me if he's not.

George: Prefers Gracie to the rest of the world.

Sammy: Prefers me, except when Tim is feeding them. At other times, too, he prefers to hang out on Tim. At still other times, it's me or nothing. In general, he must always oversee the food operations!

Didgit: He'll put up with either of us. He is one bird who *wants* a finger poked into his cage. He perches on it and gets a lot of praise. :clap:

Little Boys (Bongo and Barney): They prefer Tim, no question about it. But they don't dislike me.

Bosco and Betty: They prefer each other to the rest of the world. I think Bosco likes Tim better than me. They are the parents of the Little Boys.

Birds can be very humbling creatures ...

[wilkiecoco]

I don't know if there is a rhyme or reason, or understanding, as to which gender birds prefer!! Kiwi loooooooooooves me, loooooooooooves my son, and will divide his time equally between us. However, I am the one who changes his cage, feeds him, spends most of the time with him. Kiwi likes my husband, and is disinterested but willing to go to my other son. Soooooo........if you can figure out which gender a bird prefers, then let me know!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Buy A Paper Doll]

Yet another example of why I have wierd birds:

Milo (DNA'd male) prefers hubby over me most of the time, but will go back and forth between the 2 of us depending on his mood.

Melody (feisty hen) prefers me over hubby 99.999% of the time. All I have to do is walk in the room and she's bobbing her little head, trying to fly to me.