Lovebirds in the wild tend to move in small groups, but this can change drastically after the breeding season, particularly if it has been fruitful. Then you can see flocks of more than a hundred lovebirds. even in such large flocks, the individual couples maintain a strong bond. They form this pair bond early, after the first molt, and maintain it for life.

In the wild as well as in captivity, the partners will constantly groom one another, especially in spots where a lovebird can't reach to groom itself. It is touching to see two lovebirds side by side on a branch lovingly going through each other's feathers. The head and neck especially are gone over with delicate movements of the beak. The young are also groomed by their parents, who remove bits of dirt and loose feathers with their bills.

Paired lovebirds feed one another from the crop, not only before and during the breeding season, but throughout the year. The food is moved from the crop by pumplike movements, and the half-digested material is fed to the partner. Generally, the male takes in more food this way than the female. During the breeding season this behavior becomes more intense, and it seems to stimulate sexual behavior.

Later, the behavior takes on a more practical cast, when the male feeds his mate on the nest while she is brooding eggs or tending to newly hatched young. She, in turn, feeds the nestlings.

Sometimes a male lovebird becomes impatient at mating time and discontinues grooming and feeding the hen and attempts to copulate. It can then happen that the female will reject her mate, approaching from the side, with a few solid whacks with the beak. She opens the beak as sound that is much like hissing. The male lovebird shields himself with one of his wings and makes some beating movements or withdraws.

You won't see this mating behavior if you don't have a true male and female couple. At first, two males may sit side by side and exhibit much of the same behavior as true couples. The only indication that it isn't a true couple is that they make no attempt to build a nest, which is the specialty of female lovebird.

There are fewer clues in the case of a couple formed by two females. They can lead you by the nose for a long time, because they groom, feed, and approach one another slowly, then mount and mimic copulation. They will even build a nest. Until egg-lying time, one of the birds takes on a clearly masculine role, and the other the feminine. After completion of the nest, the eggs are laid, and the double clutch gives the deception away.