Rule number one: don't get bit.
Perhaps that doesn't sound very helpful, but think about it for a minute...
How not to get bit...
If you never get within a few inches of your bird, you'll never get bit. That does put a cramp in your relationship with your bird, but it has some advantages over handling the bird and getting bit. First and foremost, you don't get bit. I don't know about you, but I really enjoy not getting bit. Second, the bird no longer has the opportunity to be rewarded for biting you. By "rewarded" I mostly mean things that we don't often think of as rewards - things like watching you yelp (very exciting for a bored bird), driving you away (very comforting for a frightened bird), and so on.
Instead, find ways to interact with the bird without putting yourself within striking distance. Training, based on positive reinforcement, is very valuable here... Train the bird to climb into a perch or beak the end of a chopstick, for example. Rather than providing training treats by hand, drop them into the bird's food bowl. Both of these can be trained while the bird is in its cage - which makes it very easy for you to not get bit.
The great thing about training with positive reinforcement is that it gives you an excuse to provide the bird with lots and lots of treats. This teaches the bird that you're a fun person to be around - not a scary person to drive away.
Not getting bit is very easy when the bird is caged, but when you let the bird out of its cage you need to stay alert in order to avoid bites. Learn to observe your bird's body language to determine when bites are likely and when bites are not likely. Some birds can be hard to read, but most birds make their mood known in some way. Pay attention to the lay of the feathers on the bird's head - the top and the sides especially. Pay attention to the bird's wings - my pionus tend to droop them when she's stressed, my cockatoo tends to hold his slightly out from his body. Pay attention to the bird's tail - my cockatoo fans her tail when she's stressed, and Amazon parrots are famous for this as well. I have a friend with a caique whose leg feathers fluff out under stress. If you see any signs of stress, don't allow yourself to get within striking distance. It may take a while to learn the signs, but most birds do show signs of their moods in their body language.
What to do if you get bit...
If you do get bit, just drop everything and walk away for a minute or two. Ideally, give everyone else in the room a signal so THEY drop everything and disappear from the bird's view for a minute. Time-out is the only form of punishment that works for birds. If you yell, the bird might find that interesting. If you scare the bird, the bird might decide that biting the scary person was the right thing to do, and then bite you sooner next time.
While you're giving the bird its time out, think about exactly what happened in the moments before you were bit. Did you pick up an object that frightens the bird? Did you make a sudden movement? Did you do anything at all unusual? Did the bird lean away from you before biting? Raise its foot high, as if to push you away?
It might be something very subtle, so try to consider everything that led up to the bite. I realized one day that my cockatoo bites me if I offer him a treat and he's still eating the last treat I gave him. The act of holding my hand in front of his face - even while holding a treat and even while he was eating a treat - caused him to bite me rather than take the treat. That happened a couple of times before I realized it, but knowing what sets him off even though I don't know why it sets him off means that I can avoid repeating that scenario and avoid getting bit again.
Even if you cannot identify what made the bird want to bite, you might be able to identify body language that lets you know that the bird is close to biting. If you can learn this language and stop what you're doing when the bird signals that a bite could be coming, you will be more able to avoid bites.
Also think about the events that immediately followed the bite. Did you yell? Did you leave? Did you put down or move away from whatever you were holding? Birds bite because they want to accomplish something with that bite. If you can figure out what it is they are trying to accomplish, that can also help you avoid repeating a scenario that leads to a bite.
What not to do if you get bit...
First and foremost, don't punish the bird. If you react in a way that makes the bird feel threatened, that might seem helpful over the short term (they probably won't bite again for at least a couple minutes) but it will probably backfire over the longer term. The problem is that punishing a bird teaches the bird to fear you, which is very likely to make the bird even more likely to bite you again in the future.
It can also backfire by teaching the bird that biting is has fun consequences. Whatever you do, don't scold your birds. Your bird might find it rewarding to get a few seconds of your complete and undivided attention - and if the bird is really lucky, you'll even throw in some funny hand gestures. To you, this is a scolding together with some finger-pointing to drive the point home. To your bird, it's show-time!
I have a friend who I am absolutely certain has trained her Hyacinth to nip at strangers and at her neck. It saddens me because the bird was really friendly when we first met... but it's more fun to nip at people because mommy rewards that with 15 seconds of her undivided attention. Birds don't always interpret our actions the way we intend them to.
What you can expect over the long term...
It might take a long time to discover and examine every scenario that causes your bird to want to bite, but fortunately that usually isn't necessary. The more positive interactions you have with your bird, the less it will want to bite. The less your bird bites, the less it will want to bite.
Scenarios that once caused my pionus to bite me, no longer seem to bother her. This is partly because she rarely gets rewarded for biting me; partly because she has learned that she has nothing to fear from me; partly because she has learned that biting me makes me leave her all alone; mostly because our relationship has improved steadily over time. She has learned to trust me more and more so she cuts me a little more slack than she did when she first came to live with me.
With my cockatoo, who came to me when he was 20 years old, it turned out that there were really only a few scenarios that needed to be addressed. He bit after landing on my hand, so now I hold out my hand instead. He sometimes bit after I tried to get him to step up, so now I hold my hand a few inches away and let him climb on or walk away (if he walks away, I fetch a stick and carry him on that, which thankfully works quite well). As I mentioned, he bites if I hold a treat in front of him too long, so I no longer offer treats until he's ready to take them - and now he takes treats very delicately every time. Perhaps I will find more scenarios in the future, but for now we're doing very well.
Good luck!
Perhaps that doesn't sound very helpful, but think about it for a minute...
How not to get bit...
If you never get within a few inches of your bird, you'll never get bit. That does put a cramp in your relationship with your bird, but it has some advantages over handling the bird and getting bit. First and foremost, you don't get bit. I don't know about you, but I really enjoy not getting bit. Second, the bird no longer has the opportunity to be rewarded for biting you. By "rewarded" I mostly mean things that we don't often think of as rewards - things like watching you yelp (very exciting for a bored bird), driving you away (very comforting for a frightened bird), and so on.
Instead, find ways to interact with the bird without putting yourself within striking distance. Training, based on positive reinforcement, is very valuable here... Train the bird to climb into a perch or beak the end of a chopstick, for example. Rather than providing training treats by hand, drop them into the bird's food bowl. Both of these can be trained while the bird is in its cage - which makes it very easy for you to not get bit.
The great thing about training with positive reinforcement is that it gives you an excuse to provide the bird with lots and lots of treats. This teaches the bird that you're a fun person to be around - not a scary person to drive away.
Not getting bit is very easy when the bird is caged, but when you let the bird out of its cage you need to stay alert in order to avoid bites. Learn to observe your bird's body language to determine when bites are likely and when bites are not likely. Some birds can be hard to read, but most birds make their mood known in some way. Pay attention to the lay of the feathers on the bird's head - the top and the sides especially. Pay attention to the bird's wings - my pionus tend to droop them when she's stressed, my cockatoo tends to hold his slightly out from his body. Pay attention to the bird's tail - my cockatoo fans her tail when she's stressed, and Amazon parrots are famous for this as well. I have a friend with a caique whose leg feathers fluff out under stress. If you see any signs of stress, don't allow yourself to get within striking distance. It may take a while to learn the signs, but most birds do show signs of their moods in their body language.
What to do if you get bit...
If you do get bit, just drop everything and walk away for a minute or two. Ideally, give everyone else in the room a signal so THEY drop everything and disappear from the bird's view for a minute. Time-out is the only form of punishment that works for birds. If you yell, the bird might find that interesting. If you scare the bird, the bird might decide that biting the scary person was the right thing to do, and then bite you sooner next time.
While you're giving the bird its time out, think about exactly what happened in the moments before you were bit. Did you pick up an object that frightens the bird? Did you make a sudden movement? Did you do anything at all unusual? Did the bird lean away from you before biting? Raise its foot high, as if to push you away?
It might be something very subtle, so try to consider everything that led up to the bite. I realized one day that my cockatoo bites me if I offer him a treat and he's still eating the last treat I gave him. The act of holding my hand in front of his face - even while holding a treat and even while he was eating a treat - caused him to bite me rather than take the treat. That happened a couple of times before I realized it, but knowing what sets him off even though I don't know why it sets him off means that I can avoid repeating that scenario and avoid getting bit again.
Even if you cannot identify what made the bird want to bite, you might be able to identify body language that lets you know that the bird is close to biting. If you can learn this language and stop what you're doing when the bird signals that a bite could be coming, you will be more able to avoid bites.
Also think about the events that immediately followed the bite. Did you yell? Did you leave? Did you put down or move away from whatever you were holding? Birds bite because they want to accomplish something with that bite. If you can figure out what it is they are trying to accomplish, that can also help you avoid repeating a scenario that leads to a bite.
What not to do if you get bit...
First and foremost, don't punish the bird. If you react in a way that makes the bird feel threatened, that might seem helpful over the short term (they probably won't bite again for at least a couple minutes) but it will probably backfire over the longer term. The problem is that punishing a bird teaches the bird to fear you, which is very likely to make the bird even more likely to bite you again in the future.
It can also backfire by teaching the bird that biting is has fun consequences. Whatever you do, don't scold your birds. Your bird might find it rewarding to get a few seconds of your complete and undivided attention - and if the bird is really lucky, you'll even throw in some funny hand gestures. To you, this is a scolding together with some finger-pointing to drive the point home. To your bird, it's show-time!
I have a friend who I am absolutely certain has trained her Hyacinth to nip at strangers and at her neck. It saddens me because the bird was really friendly when we first met... but it's more fun to nip at people because mommy rewards that with 15 seconds of her undivided attention. Birds don't always interpret our actions the way we intend them to.
What you can expect over the long term...
It might take a long time to discover and examine every scenario that causes your bird to want to bite, but fortunately that usually isn't necessary. The more positive interactions you have with your bird, the less it will want to bite. The less your bird bites, the less it will want to bite.
Scenarios that once caused my pionus to bite me, no longer seem to bother her. This is partly because she rarely gets rewarded for biting me; partly because she has learned that she has nothing to fear from me; partly because she has learned that biting me makes me leave her all alone; mostly because our relationship has improved steadily over time. She has learned to trust me more and more so she cuts me a little more slack than she did when she first came to live with me.
With my cockatoo, who came to me when he was 20 years old, it turned out that there were really only a few scenarios that needed to be addressed. He bit after landing on my hand, so now I hold out my hand instead. He sometimes bit after I tried to get him to step up, so now I hold my hand a few inches away and let him climb on or walk away (if he walks away, I fetch a stick and carry him on that, which thankfully works quite well). As I mentioned, he bites if I hold a treat in front of him too long, so I no longer offer treats until he's ready to take them - and now he takes treats very delicately every time. Perhaps I will find more scenarios in the future, but for now we're doing very well.
Good luck!