Biting Others but Not Me?

[nikku]

Hello! My budgie's name is Beau and he's a cute little boy. I've had him for about 2-3 months or so now and he's comfortable with me now to where I can pet him and he climbs on my body. I live with a family of 5 and while he's not really close to them because they don't interact much, one of my older brother interacts with him a lot so Beau's pretty close to him too. However, my brother says that Beau tends to bite his fingers really hard (not enough to draw blood though, I believe). Beau's only bit me hard twice and both times were my fault entirely (I scared him while vacuuming once and I probably annoyed him by nudging him another time). My brother, however, tells me that he's not doing anything that he thinks makes Beau react like that, and even though Beau bites him hard, he still goes onto my brother's hands.

I've heard that birds can get aggressive with others if they've bonded closely with a human (like as a mate??), so I was wondering if that was what was happening here? I'm not really sure because Beau doesn't try to regurgitate anything to me and I don't know what other signs of mating are. He has nodded his head at my fingers before while chirping, but does that count? Or is there another reason for this situation entirely?

[Hezz]

It doesn’t sound like mating behaviour (or the opposite, a warning off) at all. I think it is more likely just an individual thing, and who knows why he has decided to pick on your brother. It is possibly just some odd instinct of Beau’s, he is also at the age where he will try to push the boundaries, see what he can get away with. There may have been some seemingly small incident between the two that has given Beau a sense of wanting to challenge the other’s standing in your flock of three - you, your brother and Beau. You probably will never know the “why” of this one.

[nikku]

Aug 28, 2021 0:52:40 GMT Hezz said:

It doesn’t sound like mating behaviour (or the opposite, a warning off) at all. I think it is more likely just an individual thing, and who knows why he has decided to pick on your brother. It is possibly just some odd instinct of Beau’s, he is also at the age where he will try to push the boundaries, see what he can get away with. There may have been some seemingly small incident between the two that has given Beau a sense of wanting to challenge the other’s standing in your flock of three - you, your brother and Beau. You probably will never know the “why” of this one.

Oh, I see. Thank you! It's also reassuring that it seems Beau doesn't see me as a mate. I'd read that it can be stressful when they mate-bond with humans and I didn't want him to go through that!