On February 27th, in Xinxiang, northern China, a parrot tore the couplets on the door into strips and placed them behind itself to "decorate" its tail.

Ms. Wang, the owner, explained that this was a peony parrot named Lai Fu, a female, which had been kept for over a year. It is likely that she is now in the breeding season and about to lay eggs, so she tears some paper from newspapers or couplets to build a nest. However, when she flies up, these paper strips almost fall off.

Peony parrots usually do not build nests, but young birds need shelters. Therefore, during this period, female parrots will collect grass, stems, and bark strips as nest materials with their beaks arranged neatly.

As parrots do not have containers on their bodies to hold these materials, they insert these materials into their feathers so they can bring them back to the nest at once. Therefore, parrots inserting paper strips into their bodies is not for the purpose of beauty or mating, but for nest preparation during the breeding season.

In fact, the peony parrot in Ms. Wang's house knows that it is about to breed. Although it is kept by humans and does not need to build nests, the instinct to collect materials for nest building is in their blood. Therefore, they will involuntarily collect materials.

The video was provided with permission from local media.

2月27日，河南新乡，一只鹦鹉将门上的对联撕成条，放在身后“装扮”自己的尾巴。
主人王女士介绍，这是一只牡丹鹦鹉，叫来福，母的，养了一年多。可能它现在处于繁殖期，马上要下蛋了，就在报纸或者对联上撕一些纸条，用来筑巢。不过当它飞起来的时候，这些纸条就掉的差不多了。
牡丹鹦鹉实际上不能单指1个物种，它是一个包含有9个物种的属（Agapornis sp），“Agapornis”用英文直译再翻译成中文，有“费舍尔的爱情鸟”的意思。牡丹鹦鹉平时是不会筑巢的，但幼鸟是需要庇护所的，因此它们会寻找岩石、树木、建筑物中的天然洞穴，甚至是其他废弃的巢穴暂时作为养育后代的位置。这个时期，雌性鹦鹉会用鸟喙去收集草、茎和树皮条等植被，以排列整齐的方式作为垫巢的材料。由于鹦鹉的身上没有可以用来装这些材料的容器，它们会将这些材料插在羽毛中以便一次性带回窝里。因此，鹦鹉往身上插纸条并不是出于爱美或求偶的目的，而是为了繁殖季节中的筑巢准备。
王女士家的牡丹鹦鹉其实也是知道自己即将繁育后代了，虽然被人类饲养不需要筑巢了，有很多现成的样式，但它们血液里就有收集材料筑巢的基因，因此会情不自禁地去收集材料，如果没有合适的植被，那纸张也是不错的选择，毕竟也是植物做的。