Rainbow lorikeet nest building

[Angel07]

I've got a rainbow lorikeet who we've had for about 10 years. It's about 11 years old. I'm pretty sure it's a male because he's never laid an egg or showed any signs of being a girl. All was going well but now he's piling stuff together and sleeping up on top of his cage (he comes out during the day and hangs out on his cage or on my shoulder depending on what I'm doing. I lock him up at night). Now I'm leaving him on top of his cage at night with his new nest. Is there a reason he's doing this now after all these years? He has plenty of human company and is not lonely but does he just want a girlfriend? Or is he actually a girl and wants to build a nest for a boyfriend?

Thanks for the help in advance

 

[cheekyarentyou]

my pair of caiques had chicks this yr after being together for 17yrs. I think it's the weather, here in San Diego is has been feeling like FL. Sadly I should say fertile eggs as they seemed to have all died at once. The acted VERY odd the whole time. Mostly the female, I dont think the male was feeding her enough and that's how the eggs failed. It was unexpected and both are very tame and outdoor free flighted.

Also I have been breeding parrots for many yrs and have seen many odd behaviors. 2 paired up for a yr, both pets like most pairs I have. Then someone gave me a male who wasnt tame. He disappeared in a huge cage only to be found in the nest box with 11 chicks. he did all of the incubation and chick rearing until I pulled them. It seemed that the original "pair" were both females as the new bird was DNA sexed as male. these were conures

Lastly, birds shrink their sex organs (because why carry weight in flight) when not being used. the hormones for breeding can go off the rails. once they get going it can cause aggression, plucking and constant egg laying. Those are extremes but I did rescue work and had a male eclectus come in with no feathers. he was aggressive too. It was his hormones. If the behavior you have seen is related to breeding you can increase baths and make sure it has 12hrs of dark. With seed eating parrots having issues I also recommend reducing calories but I am unfamiliar with how to do that with lories. what I described is.

TOTALLY not saying that any of these are related. It could just be something like a game or ??? I'd have to know a lot more and even then birds are so odd and natural behavior is not well studied, proper lory nutrition is still shockingly new