Dominance

[Mydoona]

I read that you shouldn't let your lovebird sit on your head because that shows it that it is more dominant over you...is this true?
Keiko comes out of her cage and flys straight on my head...she loves to sit on our heads but should we stop her doing this?
Does she really feel dominant on our heads? ta

[BarbieH]

With lovies, I think it's more of the bird wanting to try to feel as safe as possible. The higher, the better, is how they seem to look at it. With larger parrots, I think dominance can be affected by relative height, but that's not so much the case with lovies. But they do tend to feel safer if they are higher up.

[shylevon]

I think this is more true of larger parrots, the kind that can become very aggressive and harm you. Large parrots do this thing called "eye pinning" just before they bite, and this is the type of bird you should not let sit atop your head. You should also keep the cage of a bird like this lower than your eyesight. This will teach them that they are not the aggressors in the household.

Lovebirds, however, do not need to be treated this way. They are smaller and although they are an aggressive species, they're views of dominance are not the same, and they do not behave the same way larger parrots do.

They just like sitting on your head to get a better view of the world. That, and to make sure you don't have bugs up there.

[Janie]

I don't let mine sit on my head for more than a few seconds but only because I don't like.....POOP in my hair! :D Otherwise, I agree that the height thing is more important with larger parrots and lovebirds are fine on your head if you don't mind.