How well does your bird speak?

[Bird_Writer]

Hello,

My name is Tammy Gagne. I am a writer and columnist for Bird Times magazine. I visit BirdBoard.com occasionally while doing research for my upcoming pieces.

Some of my most recent articles/columns are listed below.

"The Cross-species Question" (December 2005)
"Problem Behaviors" (December 2005)
"Cage Dangers" (October 2005)
"Preventing the Theft of Your Parrot" (June 2005)

I am currently seeking responses from owners of talking parrots to include in an upcoming piece about parrot speech. Any information you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like to participate, please copy and paste the following questions and send them with your answers to the e-mail address below. Please be sure to include your name, your bird's name and species, and your location (just a city and state or state is fine), so I can credit you properly if I use your response within the column.

1. What are the most striking words or phrases your bird says regularly? Please be as detailed as possible (when he/she says it, to whom, etc.).

2. Has your bird every said something especially funny, poignant, or otherwise noteworthy at an extremely appropriate moment? Please explain.

3. Do you think your bird understands the words he/she says, or do you think this is just a case of repetition and coincidence? Why do you think so?

4. Does your bird typically learn new words that you try to teach him/her, or does he/she seem to learn the words he/she chooses independently?

5. Has your bird ever said something you wished he/she did not?

6. How much time do you spend talking to your bird each day?

7. Do you leave the radio/television on for your bird when you aren't home?

8. Have you ever used tapes to improve your bird's speaking ability?

9. Overall, how important is a bird's speaking ability to you?

10. Is there anything else you would like to share about your bird and/or this topic?

Thank you very much. I look forward to reading your responses.

Tammy Gagne
tagwriter@yahoo.com

[MJMette]

1. Our male Quaker says "Mister Fluffy" whenever he "fluffs out." He says it best for my mom, who he absolutely HATES.

2. Often times after biting somebody he will laugh.

3. I don't know if he completely understands it, but he certainly associates most of his language with actions. "Mister Fluffy"-explained above, "Shake"-lifts foot and bobs head, "Bye-bye"-when someone walks away or leaves the house, "gimme kiss"-gives a kiss and then gives a "thankyou"

4. The words and phrases were taught, various noises, laughs, etc were picked up

5. No, but there are some noises I wish he wouldnt make

6. 5-20 minutes

7. no
8.no
9.not important, pretty neat though
10. One day while playing with some 2 month old baby parakeets some one in the kitchen made a catcall whistle. She was answered by all the parakeets making a whistle, including the little babies. We were so alarmed! We'd never heard them mimic before. I guess most parakeets have hidden talents, you just have to listen for them.

[yehudasf]

Originally Posted by Bird_Writer

My name is Tammy Gagne

I note that you are from Westbrook,Maine but I wondered if you were by chance related to Wayne Gagne, the manufacturer of the Bottlebrush Avian Play gyms? If not, it is most serendipitous that you share a patronym, & an obvious affection for psittazen companions. If you would like to see & hear how a very young Ara Chloroptera speaks, visit the Viridian Rose stickie at the top of the Bird talk area, select page two, scroll down to post # 47. Therein you will find a link to a MOV file that shows Viridian Rose working on her "hello".

[felisdomesticus]

Originally Posted by yehudasf

If you would like to see & hear how a very young Ara Chloroptera speaks, visit the Viridian Rose stickie at the top of the Bird talk area, select page two, scroll down to post # 47. Therein you will find a link to a MOV file that shows Viridian Rose working on her "hello".

that video is absolutely priceless!

[Alyce Johnson]

1. What are the most striking words or phrases your bird says regularly? Please be as detailed as possible (when he/she says it, to whom, etc.).

My blind macaw Berta says "Hello?" when she hears the door open or hears someone walk into the room, if they dont identify themselves right away by speaking. Mainly she sounds anxious, like she wants to know what's going on. She'll say it repeatedly, getting more agitated, if nobody responds.

Our senior green cheek conure Emerald (10+ yrs old) says "step up" repeatedly to her babies (she thinks they're hers) who are the 2 other very young green cheeks with whom she lives and shares her cages. She says it at night in the sleeping cage, when the little girls want to fuss at each other and make noise, instead of settling in for the night and going to sleep. It's really funny, because she says it as a way to try to make them behave.

2. Has your bird every said something especially funny, poignant, or otherwise noteworthy at an extremely appropriate moment? Please explain.

Emerald can also say "Be Quiet" - I've only heard her say that once, when the cats were being really noisy at night and keeping her awake. She can also say "Shutup!" - she says that once in a great while too - again usually to the cats when they're having a middle of the night disagreement that woke her up.

Berta has a funny way of saying "uh hm" - a sound of definite agreement, which she interjects at key moments in conversations my husband & I will be having. She agrees with the speaker, and manages to sound very definite. It can be really funny, at times, since she agrees with some very interesting things. (I think she is really just responding to vehement voice tones used by people she's attached to.)
3. Do you think your bird understands the words he/she says, or do you think this is just a case of repetition and coincidence? Why do you think so?

Berta definitely understands "hello?" and Emerald definitely knows what "shut up" and "be quiet" mean, because they use them in context.

Emerald also knows what "step up" means when a person says it to her - she steps up. But she uses it differently when she says it to the Jr flock members. In that context, she uses it to tell them to "behave".

I think she uses the word this way because when we're telling her to step up, what we're really saying is "get on the finger and dont bite me". She's an unrepentant biter, and getting her to step up w/out biting takes several tries, usually. So for her, it really does mean "behave" because she'd far prefer to bite the hand, than step up onto it. Usually, we have to pull back our fingers a few times and try again.

We have a phrase we use to ease our own frustration. We'll say "no, step up, not bite up!" and then we try again, starting over with "step up" until she does it w/out trying to bite us. She can be totally sweet, when she wants to. She's not afraid of us, she's a dominance biter - she wants to rule the roost!

Pico, our 22 yr old amazon, can say "Pico good bird!" but that seems to be just something he has heard and understands in a general kind of way. He only says it once in awhile, and seems to use it to comfort himself.

He says it less now, than he did when we first got him, probably because we picked up on it and began telling him often that he was a good bird. I think he missed hearing it from his previous owners, when we first got him, so he said it himself, to reassure himself, in a new & unsettling environment.

4. Does your bird typically learn new words that you try to teach him/her, or does he/she seem to learn the words he/she chooses independently?

Only 3 of our 13 birds talk, and they already knew those words when we got them.

When Berta says "hello" I get the feeling someone taught her to say that.

She also once or twice said "I'm sorry" - and used it correctly for an instance where she'd bit one of us or knocked something over while exploring it with her beak. (She uses her beak to feel things and to find her way while walking or climbing just the same way a blind person uses their cane.)

But she only said that a few times when we first got her. And now, since she doesnt bite us anymore (rarely, anyway) and has learned she wont be punished for exploring things with her beak (since she's blind) even if she knocks them off or drops them - she has never said it again.

I think she said it out of fear of punishment, at the time. We comforted her and told her it was alright, and she didnt have to be sorry. I dont think she understood everything we said, of course, but I think she understood she wasnt expected to apologize for herself, in her new home.

Berta was abandoned by her owner to be rehomed - or not - after she lost her sight while being boarded at a pet store, while her original owner of 15 years was off on vacation. The owner apparently wasnt willing to work with her handicap, and was probably initially angry with her when she would bite out of fear, or knock things over with her beak. I suspect that's where/how she learned to say "I'm sorry" so contritely.

When Emerald speaks, however, it's clear she chose those words & phrases on her own, mainly from having had them said to her so often. She's noisy, which is no doubt how she learned to say "shut up!" and "be quiet!" - by hearing it lots of times! But she does know what they mean, and she uses them in context.

(see above re Pico's use of language)

We have never tried to teach any of them to talk, as I dont really believe in birds having to learn to speak English. We let them be birds, and they say something in our language when it suits them. We have taught them the meaning of some words and very simple phrases (like "poop" or "step up" and "no") but we've never tried to get them to speak to us in our own language.

5. Has your bird ever said something you wished he/she did not?
no

6. How much time do you spend talking to your bird each day?

I talk to them all the time - maybe 1-2 hrs total a day to the macaw Berta, maybe a half hour to the amazon Pico, and maybe a few minutes a day to the green cheeks.
But I'm just talking to them, not trying to train them to talk. My husband also talks to them, especially to Pico who is kind of "his bird".

7. Do you leave the radio/television on for your bird when you aren't home?
no

8. Have you ever used tapes to improve your bird's speaking ability?
no

9. Overall, how important is a bird's speaking ability to you?
Not at all important. See the answer to question #4.

10. Is there anything else you would like to share about your bird and/or this topic?

Berta laughs and cackles - depending on how naughty she's being and how pleased with herself she is. She also has a "ooo" kind of noise she makes when pleased. I think she mainly uses these sounds to communicate with us, on her terms.

She will cackle, for example, if she is able to run a cat out of the cat bed using her beak to pull it's fur. She will then prance around in the warm spot inside the little cat bed, while doing the cackle. Then she moves on to explore other places - she has no interest in occupying the cat bed, but totally delights in rousting the regular occupants out!

She laughs when we bathe her either in the outdoor pond (in summer) or with a spray bottle in the house (In winter). She will also laugh when my husband plays with her.

But the cackle she reserves for truly wicked naughtiness - and she seems to know when she's getting into mischief. Like harrassing cats, or throwing sprouts all over the floor (and all over mom, and all over herself) when she was first offered them to eat, for example. (I dont think she actually ate a single one, but she loved playing with them!)

When her beak was "dislocated" and had to be put back in place, we took her to th emergency vet, and he manipulated it back into place. We sat her back down on the examining table, and she moved her beak around cautiously, to make sure everything worked OK again.

She did her happy "ooo" noise as she was checking out the restored action of her beak. And when she'd satisfied herself that she had proper function back, she laughed happily!

It was really a sweet moment - and a great relief, because it was a potentially serious injury. It was great to hear her laugh, under those circumstances. She was so happy and grateful to have her beak fixed!

I think those kinds of vocalizations are really her most expressive forms of "speech" - you just have to know your bird, and know what their noises mean. Every bird is different - Pico, for example makes a whole range of sounds (besides "normal" bird chirps) and they mean distinct things, when he uses different types of sounds.

Rather than having bird owners get so hung up on whether their bird can speak in English (or whatever human language their owner uses) I think it would be better to train bird owners (especially prospective bird owners!) to be more interested in what they can say " in bird" - because they are far more interesting and expressive in their own native language!

When people ask me if my bird can talk I always say *Yes! S/he is a great talker - but she mostly speaks macaw" (or "amazonian" etc). I think people shoud be way less focused on what they say in our languages. I have plenty of human friends who speak my language - the last thing I need is a talking pet! The point of living with exotic pets (inc birds) is to enter into their world and learn about them, in my opinion.

And it's really nice to have the melody of their language in my home - I like coming home to their exotic sounds way better than hearing more English, especially after a long day at the office. Native bird languages are literally music, to my ears!
I really hope you will encourage your readers to take the time to listen & learn what their birds *really* have to say - in their own words, not ours.