found a lovebird

Question
I was at a park the other day and a lovebird came and landed on me so we decided to take him home. It looks to be very young. We want to be able to get it used to us but when we put our hand in to try to get him to come onto our finger he bites. I dont want to scare him but I know I have to be able to get him out of the cage to start being able to tame him. How do I get him out of the cage the first few times to be able to establish trust with him/her? The bird runs and I don't want it to get hurt flying all over the cage trying to get away from my finger. I don't think it will let me get near it's belly in order to push lightly to get it to step up.
Thanks in advance for your help

Answer
Hi, Kristen.  Thanks for posting.

The first thing I recommend you do is try to find the original owner.  This lovebird may have been a Xmas present to a child and/or may have a very sad owner looking for s/he.  Lovebirds are escape artists and this bird may have escaped accidently.  Put an ad in the local paper, post flyers in the park/local stores, etc., to see if you can locate the owner.  If the lovebird has a leg band, you might be able to locate the owner via the information on the leg band.

This lovebird is very frightened at the moment, so you need to give s/he some time to get used to you and it's new environment.  After all, s/he has gotten away from it's original home somehow, has had to survive on it's own in the wild (which is a major accomplishment for a domesticated parrot), and now is with new people in a home s/he is not familiar with.  The bird needs time to settle down some before you try working with it.  If the bird landed on you, it might already be fairly tame and/or at least familiar with humans.  Give s/he time to settle down some and then see what kind of bird you have.

Biting is a learned behavior in caged parrots.  It has learned that if it doesn't want to deal with a human, all it has to do is bite/lunge/try to bite, and the human reacts by pulling away from the bird and leaving it alone.  Also, the inside of a bird's cage is it's personal space, it's personal territory, it's safety zone.  Most don't like "intruders" invading into their space.  Once the lovebird has had time to settle down some, just leave it's cage door open and allow it to come out on it's own.  Once out of it's cage on it's own, you can try to see how far you can get handling s/he and/or seeing if you can get the bird to perch on your finger.  

Trust comes with time.  It will take longer than a few times with the lovebird in order to establish trust.  You'll have to take small steps in working with this lovebird once you find out how tame or how tame s/he isn't before you can really decide what next steps to take.  But, you can't do much right now until the bird has a chance to settle down and gets more familiar with you.  You are most likely making matters worse at the moment, i.e., causing the bird to mistrust you or be afraid of you by trying to work with s/he before s/he is ready.  

My website might provide you with more information if you want to visit:  http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Come back if you need to.  Thanks.

Chrys