Ask Lafeber

Love bird butt dance

Hello i have two love birds a peach faced and a dutch faced. I have suspicions that the dutch faced is a female. At times in the morning time it will make a noise that is unlike typical day noises. Its like a very low and consistent chattering noise (like if you are cold and your teeth chatter). At that point it looks like they take turns stepping on each others back and scratching their head. They do this for like 20 minutes. Then the dutch faced after a couple rotations of this pattern does a “butt dance” where she sits really low on the pirch and swipes her butt left and right back and forth for like 6 seconds. Can you explain this?

Hi Chemal,

Both of your birds are probably peach faces lovebirds, but the one you are calling a dutch face is actually a Dutch Blue mutation of a peach faced lovebird.

I’m not sure how old your birds are but they are definitely exhibiting some breeding behavior. They sound like young birds who really do not know what they are doing yet. If these birds are under a year old, you may need to split them up for a few months because they are not old enough to breed. You also need to decide if you want to breed them. If not, then split them up and keep them in separate cages. If you do want to breed them and they are still too young, split them up until they are closer to 1.5 – 2 years of age. In the meantime you can research how to breed lovebirds to make sure you want to breed them. You will need a nest box and other supplies as well as make sure they are on a nutritionally balanced diet, and not just a seed mix.

Now, just because they are behaving this way does not mean they are male and female. You could possibly have two birds of the same sex. The only way to know for sure other than a blood test is to wait and see if either bird eventually lays eggs. So you have a lot to think about, but now you know this is breeding behavior.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda