Bill covering and nape feather ruffling as indicators of calm states in the Sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita).

Parrots are highly social birds that are recognized for their primate-like cognitive abilities but their way to express emotions remain overlooked. Herein we explored potential facial indicators of emotions in cockatoos. We predicted that facial feather ruffling is an indicator of a cockatoo's emotional state and hypothesized that specific facial feather positions would be present more during positive valence and low arousal situations. We observed feather position on the crest, cheek and nape during the daily routine of a group of five captive, non-breeding, Sulphur-crested cockatoos. The data show that cheek and nape feather ruffling occurred significantly more during activities associated with low arousal levels and positive valence such as maintenance behaviours, positive and quiet social contact and resting. Our data suggest that ruffling feathers over the bill (i.e. cheek feather ruffling) and nape ruffling may provide visual indicators of calm/relaxed states in cockatoos. Subtle movement of facial feathers may be an effective close-ranged visual signal to communicate birds' affective states or their intention to engage in specific activities. This work provides a novel approach to assessing the positive welfare of captive cockatoos and to understanding emotional communication in non-mammalian species.

Facial display and blushing: Means of visual communication in blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara Ararauna)?

Mainly recognized for their cognitive performance, the visual communication system and, particularly, the potential function of facial displays in parrots remain thus far unexplored. Here, we provide the first descriptive study of facial display use in captive blue-and-yellow macaws. We observed the feather position (sleeked or ruffled) on the crown, nape and cheek at the group level during the macaws' daily routine and individually while interacting with a familiar animal caretaker. In the latter context, blushing was also assessed on the bare skin of the cheek. Group level observations showed that crown, nape and cheek feathers ruffling was more frequent in activities requiring no locomotion than in activities requiring locomotion. With the animal caretaker, crown ruffling was significantly more frequent when the caretaker was actively engaging with the parrot than during a control phase with no mutual interaction. In addition, a significantly higher proportion of naïve observers judged blushing as being present on photographs taken during the mutual interaction phase than during the control phase. We thus showed significant variations in facial displays and bare skin colour based on the birds' social context and activity. Our results broaden the scope for further studies to determine whether parrots' faces provide visual social signals.