Parakeets don't rush into new friendships - they move cautiously

Parakeets remind us that meeting someone new can feel uncertain. These birds ease into unfamiliar company, and people are no different. We tend to observe first and speak later, because trust never appears instantly.

Social animals face a similar problem. Getting close to the wrong individual can mean a quick bite, a chase, or something worse.

The risks do not stop parakeets from forming strong bonds. They just need a smart way to handle the first move.

Making friends, parakeet style

In a recent study from the University of Cincinnati, scientists watched monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) as they encountered unfamiliar birds.

These small green parrots are clever, noisy, and very social, but they also have sharp beaks that can do real damage.

The team wanted to know whether the parakeets rush in or take their time when meeting strangers.

Study lead author Claire O’Connell is a doctoral student in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences.

“There can be a lot of benefits to being social, but these friendships have to start somewhere,” said O’Connell.

“Most of us have been in situations where we share space with new people, get comfortable and gradually build up trust. The parakeets seem to do something very similar.”

Parakeet bonds help reduce stress

O’Connell worked with Professor Elizabeth Hobson, former UC postdoctoral researcher Annemarie van der Marel, and Professor Gerald Carter of Princeton University.

The team focused on how relationships start – not just how they look once they are already strong.

“Many parrots, for example, form strong bonds with one or two other birds. Partners often spend most of their time together, preen each other, or sometimes form reproductive relationships,” O’Connell said.

“Generally, maintaining these strong social bonds is associated with decreased stress and higher reproductive success.”

Slowly building contact

The payoffs of being close to another bird are high, but the danger is real, especially when two animals do not know each other.

A sudden lunge or bite can leave injuries and scare a bird away from future attempts to connect. That creates pressure to approach carefully, and sometimes caution is not enough.

“We often observe what we call ‘quarreling,’ which may occur if a bird’s attempt to groom another bird’s feathers is not well received,” O’Connell said. “Quarreling is a mild type of aggression, and it may deter the bird from trying to groom them.”

A friendly gesture can flip into a short burst of conflict, so the safest strategy is to build up contact step by step.

Inside the parakeet experiment

To study this process in detail, the researchers combined groups of wild-caught monk parakeets inside a large flight pen.

Some of the birds already knew each other, while others were complete strangers. The setup allowed the team to watch new relationships form in a setting where the birds could fly, perch, and interact on their own terms.

The researchers recorded how close each pair of birds came over time and which ones groomed one another or showed other friendly behavior.

With more than 179 relationships to track, the group turned to computational methods and statistical models to see whether the pattern matched the idea of “testing the waters.”

“Capturing the first moments between strangers can be challenging, so we were really excited that our experiments gave us the chance to observe that process up close,” O’Connell said.

Parakeets test the waters

The data showed that strangers did not rush into tight contact. They were more likely to start by simply sharing space, staying near each other without touching.

Over time, some pairs moved closer and closer until they perched shoulder-to-shoulder, touched beaks, or groomed one another. A few pairs went even further and ended up sharing food or mating.

These slow, careful steps matched what the researchers expected from the testing-the-waters idea. O’Connell recognized that there may be some lessons she could learn from the parakeets.

“What’s really fascinating about testing the waters is how intuitive it feels,” O’Connell said. “I can definitely relate! I started observing the parakeets shortly before I moved to Cincinnati to start graduate school. I was excited but also a little nervous about making new friends.”

Bats, birds, and complex societies

The parakeet findings line up with earlier work on vampire bats, where new partners also start with low-risk grooming and only later share food with individuals that proved to be reliable.

In both species, cautious escalation seems to protect them from trusting the wrong partner too quickly.

“This process isn’t well documented outside of vampire bats and monk parakeets” O’Connell said. “We don’t know how common this process may be when developing new relationships in other social species.”

For animals that live in groups with shifting alliances, testing how safe another individual is before investing more time and energy has a clear logic.

Understanding how social bonds form

The team sees this study as one step in understanding how social ties begin. Watching only well-formed friendships can miss the fragile, early stages when things might still fall apart.

By starting at first contact, researchers can see which interactions build trust and which ones shut it down.

Future projects will look at other groups of monk parakeets and at different species to see how far this pattern spreads.

Studying relationship formation under different conditions can reveal how friendship-like bonds start and grow.

“I am really looking forward to seeing who else may be testing the waters and what that can tell us about how animals or maybe even people build new relationships,” O’Connell said.

The full study was published in the journal Biology Letters.

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