overpreening african grey baby

Question
I have 3 macaws which i hand reared 2. yesterday a friend of mine who owns a wonderful bird shop called and asked if i would be interested in purchasing a 5 1/2 mo old male (sexed)grey. all the other babies are gone and he has started plucking. I was suprised to find a beautiful healthy grey that has pulled out all her tail feathers and her primary/secondary wing feathers. I took him home and we bonded well. Even though he is weaned i did hand feed to increase the bond. He is eating seeds and lots of fruits and veggies. He's of course very unbalanced and difficult to carry around as he wants to be on my shoulder. I've included many preening toys and feathers of my macaws to help w/ learning to preen. I just had him on my shoulder and he became engrossed in preening my hair. He actually uses a scissors motion and breaking my hair. I had to fight (gently)to get him away from my head. I have tried to preen him myself to teach him but do you have any other ideas? I know this will take time and i'm very willing to do what I can. Any help would be appreciated

Answer
Hi again, Nikki,

The experts name is Jennifer.  Find her under "birds-general" or "parrots" category on this site.

Chrys
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Hi, Nikki,

Could this bird be molting or is this bird actually plucking?  Usually birds that pluck themselves pluck their chest feathers, legs, etc., before they will pluck their tail feathers/wing feathers.  5 1/2 months could be the start of a first molt.  If this bird has bonded to you well and doesn't seem to have any other psychological issues, then I'd reconsider your belief that this bird is a plucker.  At 5 1/2 months of age, as long as this bird has had a happy life so far, and considering the intelligence level of greys, I found it difficult to believe he is a plucker already.  

Although birds need to preen and devote much time each day for this, I'm not sure you should be encouraging this bird to preen if he's a plucker (I'm not convinced from your post that he is).  

There is another expert on this site, and I apologize for not knowing her name at the moment, who is an expert at parrot behavior.  She's probably listed under parrots - general.  I think she has a degree in biology, but has been a zoo curator of birds if I remember correctly, and specializes in parrot behavior.  She may be able to offer more insights into parrot behavior at such a young age of bird, particularly with greys since they are so intelligent (they may be affected psychologically at a younger age than other parrots).  I'll find her name and send it to you after I send this message.

Chrys