Dear Jordan: Why do birds fall off their perch at night?

Dear Jordan,

Can you tell me what you know about the reasons a bird would fall off his perch in the middle of the night, if his environment hasn’t changed?

Sincerely,

Wake up hearing a thud!

a parrot needs sleep — and if i stay on my perch, i am sure to not wake up my human!

Dear Wake up hearing a thud,

It must be somewhat disturbing to suddenly hear your bird fall to its cage bottom or floor. I know that sometimes in the middle of the night, something must have happened and Jazzmine or as we sometimes call her, Mrs. G (greenbird –greenberg..??) falls off her basket perch and being that it is dark, she wanders under the bed to sleep. Or sometimes I, Jordan the grey, and Roger the senegal are found not where our cage is – one on the couch back and one perched on a chair leg.

Birds sometimes hear things you adults do not hear.

yes, a night light might be good, for in the middle of the night, this lil guy, just might scare me enough to fall off my perch!

However, if your bird is falling off consistently or often enough in the middle of the night, it could be that you might want to change some perches around. Use a variety of different perches or widths and ones not slippery.

Leaving a night light on at least in the distance might help as well.

One more thing, if by chance you are questioning because of a cockatiel, or have one, they are known to have something called ‘night fright’ and in the middle of the night, they start to thrash in their cage and fall off the perch. Mike is the cockatiel around here and he will scare a few of us big parrots too.