No preening Normal preening Feather picking In the middle of this continuum is normal feather care and maintenance, represented by normal preening. To the left is the complete absence of feather care and maintenance, most commonly seen with domestic, hand-raised birds. To the right of the middle is over-zealous preening or outright damage to, or destruction of, the plumage represented by feather picking. Bird behavior tends to be patterned and ritualized. With this fact and the feather care and maintenance continuum in mind, it should not be too difficult to appreciate why captive birds, experiencing multiple stresses day after day, continuously pick at their feathers.
Most caged birds seem prone to feather picking.
The groups of birds most notorious for engaging in this vice include African gray and Timneh parrots, cockatoos, macaws, conures, gray-cheeked parakeets, and cockatiels. Interestingly, we rarely see feather picking budgies or Amazon parrots. This may represent the way in which some of these birds cope with or manifest stress. Others believe that the condition is an infectious disease, possibly of viral origin. This constant and continual trauma results in infection and failure of these wounded areas to heal.