Survey Results: Talking Bird Owners Talk Back
Charlene Beane
Our survey on talking birds garnered more response than any other survey we have run. More than 200 surveys landed on my desk. As usual, about 20 percent were from members and the other 80 percent were from non-members. African parrot owners from all over the world wanted to share their stories about their talented birds. We had a lot of responses from Canada, but we also heard from Ireland, France, Italy, the UK, Slovenia, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
All of the commonly kept species were represented: Of the Poicephalus, we had one brownhead, nine Meyer's, 13 red bellieds, 36 Senegals, 16 Jardine's and four Capes, including Thor, who has his own web site, http://www.capeparot.org/. Check it out. It is quite amazing. Representing the greys, we had 25 Timnehs and 98 Congos, Cameroons, whatever--you know, the red tailed ones.
The ages of our talking birds ranged from less than one year to more than 45 years, with the heaviest distribution toward the lower end of the range; the vast majority of birds reported in our survey were 10 years old or less, and the largest group was the three year olds.
Predictably, most of the birds started talking around one year of age, but quite a few Senegals started talking at four months old. Most respondents took credit for teaching their birds to talk, but a few said the bird taught himself, several said their African birds learned from other talking birds in the home, and about 25 percent said the previous owner(s) taught the bird to talk. Many of the older birds have had multiple owners.
A couple of the birds do not talk at all, but their owners wanted to let us know that not all African greys talk. At the other end of the spectrum, M.L. Leinneweber, New York, has two African greys, Katie, age 9, and Casey, age 14, that each have vocabularies of around 400 words. These birds are still learning new words and phrases. The interesting thing about M.L.'s response is the distinction that Casey uses his vocabulary to communicate and understands what he is saying, while Katie does not. "[Casey] orchestrates and directs all the other birds."
Eighty-five percent of the respondents say that their parrots use their vocabulary to communicate. A good example is Katara, a three-year-old African grey who lives with Steffanie Budnick in Michigan. Steffanie wrote, "We'll be watching television or be somewhere in the house and she will ask us where we are or start telling us 'Up' when she wants up. When she wants to play, it's 'tickle-tickle-tickle.' She also tells the other birds to be nice and sends the dog to her room. It's too funny."
Michael Spangler's 6-year-old African grey says "Water, please," when he is out of water, but never at any other time.
Eighty percent of our bird owners think their parrots understand what they are saying. Sabine G. Renner, Tennessee, reported on Shelby, a red-bellied parrot, who has a vocabulary of about 30 words. She said, "My talking bird makes me realize that his speaking abilities are specific in context, thus, clearly a form of communication. For this reason, I now believe non-speaking birds have a great capacity to understand and comprehend daily language I use with my parrots. Just because they cannot repeat it does not indicate that they do not understand it. Shelby has given me a greater respect for all my birds."
Sharon Karagozlu, California, has Kobi, a 19-month-old African grey, whose vocabulary is about 25 words. Sharon wrote, "Yesterday Kobi was rambling on and on, saying every word and whistle she knew, so I looked at her and said, 'Kobi, you are such a silly bird.' She replied by saying, 'I know.'"
That old shy streak runs through a lot of our African parrots. Sixty-five percent of our respondents reported that their birds do not talk freely in the presence of visitors. However, Joanne Gilden's African grey, Tarzan, is not one of those birds. Tarzan is 27 years old and has a vocabulary of 350-400 words. "Several years ago, Tarzan had several appearances on a 20/20 segment featuring parrots." Joanne says she uses Tarzan as an "Ice breaker for social gatherings of international scientists working in the field of virology where English is often spoken with difficulty. Tarzan will say, for example, 'It's a virus, Dr. Gilden,' or 'Next slide, please,' and this leads to instant conversation."
Do these talented birds continue to learn new words and phrases? Eighty-five percent of our respondents say they do. However, Susan Harnish, Minnesota, reported an odd phenomenon regarding her lesser Jardine's, Parsley. "She has not talked since our talking Amazon came when Parsley was two years old. Parsley communicates by looks, movement and pounding her beak two or three times. I wish she would start talking again. She used to whistle beautifully and does not do that much anymore."
I wondered if the birds learning new words and phrases were the youngsters in our survey so I went back through the reports, paying special attention to birds more than 3 years old. In the process, I came across this charming anecdote from Mike in New Mexico, telling about his 12-year-old Timneh, Goofball. "Our grey was wild caught. Her eyes were still dark. I let her flight feathers grow out and as soon as she could fly, she gained confidence, tamed down completely and started talking. She was easy to potty train. On the rare occasions that she poops where she is not supposed to, she cusses. She also turns on the kitchen one-handled faucet to get a drink and then usually turns it off."
Then there's the story of Zibor, a 6-year-old Cameroon grey who lives with Johanne Berard in Quebec. "First, he's French. He tells me when he's hungry, sad, tired or mad--by those words. He calls my children Charles and Kelly-Ann, calls the dogs and my other 32 birds, and says hello and goodbye to everyone who arrives or leaves the place. I'm a breeder and, logically, I tried to put Zibor in a breeding situation. He stayed three years in my aviary with a female who was handfed, too, but not tame. Every morning he talked to her like 'Hi, how are you? Give me a kiss!' and stopped only when she gave him an answer. He never became nervous or stressed without the presence of humans or became aggressive toward me or my family, but he was not ready to be a bird parent. After three years, we decided to take him back with us, and he has been with us again for one year without any problem. He stayed tame during all this time. I have more than 30 birds, but this is the most special one. I love you, Zibor."
Regarding whether or not talking was important in choosing a bird, 85 percent of our respondents said it was not. The 15 percent who admitted that talking was a factor in their choice of a bird were mostly in the African grey group. Julie Matuewezski of Massachusetts wrote about Sonya, her 3-year-old Senegal: "When we got Sonya, we were told she probably would never speak. How wrong they were! She is very vocal, although her speaking ability is limited to a few words and phrases. We were also told that after a year she would become a terror and that we would be unable to control her. Again, they were wrong. She has continued to be a sweet girl who dearly loves my son."
Stacy Niemic of Illinois has a six-month-old red bellied parrot named Cheetos. She said, "I bought him for his character, not his talking ability. When he started talking, it was a bonus."
Lisa Branson, whose three-year-old Meyer's parrot, Mickey, knows about 10 phrases, summed it up nicely: "Talking or not talking--having a bird is just wonderful. She allows me to nurture a small creature since my daughter is growing up. It's just a lot of fun for our own personal (and show-off) entertainment that she can talk, too!
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To participate in our Autumn survey, go to the African Parrot Society web site, www.wingscc.com/aps. The topic will be Strange Bedfellows. It will include questions about birds and their relationships with other birds, other pets, humans, even inanimate objects. We ran this survey when I worked for BIRD TALK Magazine and found an unusually high number of African greys and mitred conures who were best friends. Was that a fluke, or do these two species still become pals?
© 2003 African Parrot Society
Last updated: May 28, 2003