Cockatiel No Longer Likes Me

Question
I was given a lovely Female Pearl Cockatiel in March of 2006.  
The bird was very wary of hands at first, but quickly learned to
love me and began to be very demanding of me to pet and
cuddle with it.  

I worked at a very small private school (27 students at the whole
school) and she seemed to enjoy the presence of the children
and all the attention she recieved.  I no longer work there and
now the bird spends her time at home with me, my husband,
and our two cats.  

After bringing the bird home, she continued to be very friendly
with me and became very friendly with my husband as well.  She
seemed to prefer my husband more and more, but would still
come to me and let me pet her and nuzzle her.  

One evening she and I were spending some time alone together
when my cell phone went off and startled her something awful.  
She flew furiously around the room and smacked into one of the
windows.  It was one of the worst smacks I have ever seen.  I
went to her and picked her up.  She was wobbly and shaken, but
there was no aparent damage.  I kept her out of the cage for a
little while and observed her and eventually put her back in the
cage.  

For the next few days she behaved somewhat differently, she
was very quiet...not making a peep for almost a week, and was
unusually calm.  Since that day, she will not come to me.  When I
let her out of the cage and she will fly about the room and when
I extend my finger to her, she will fly away from me.  She will do
this continually, never opting to climb on my finger.  She still
LOVES my husband and is as demanding as ever with him for his
love, attention, and petting.  Sometimes after my husband has
pet her for a while, she will agree to climb onto my finger.  She
has even put her head down a couple of times, but as soon as I
start to pet her she will bite my fingers and hiss at me.  

Is it possible that the bird associates the horible window event
with me or has my bird simply chosen my husband as it's "best
friend"?  

Answer
Hi, Amber.  Thanks for posting!

Your tiel could have broken her neck when she hit that window.  Have you thought of clipping your tiel's wing flight feathers so she can't fly around freely for her own safety (but then you also want her to be able to get up and away from the cats if needbe)?  

I'm sure your bird associates you with the window incident, but could be a little of both the window and her bonding with your husband.  Your bird doesn't know what a cell phone is, but she knows what you are, therefore, your tiel thinks you made the cell phone sound that scared her.  We have to remember that our feathered companions don't know about/understand things like window glass, cell phones, alarm clocks, your anniversary clock that dings on the hour, phones ringing, images on the TV (they think they are real people), radios (they don't understand that people don't live inside these things), etc.  She may be coming around a little bit, but birds vividly remember things that frighten or scare them and things that make them happy.  I would venture to say that your tiel will probably be frightened whenever she hears that cell phone sound again!  

The best you can do is to NEVER allow your cell phone to ring close to your bird again!  You will need to gain your tiel's trust again, and it sounds like this might be happening a little bit.  Whenever your hubby has the bird, do like you describe above and attempt to make friends with her again.  It will take a little effort at a time and may take some time, but she should come around again.

Chrys