BONGO BIRD

Teaching your Bird to Talk

By Nora A. Stanley

How do you teach a bird to talk? Well, you can talk at the bird, or you can talk to it. Teaching a bird to talk with a tape or CD is essentially talking at the bird. Say that you've purchased a baby parrot, and perhaps finished handfeeding it yourself for a few weeks. Obviously, just leaving it alone in the cage and playing a recording will be confusing. Some parrots do pick up some phrases this way; however, your bird will probably learn better by interacting with you (on the other hand, one friend found that when his Amazon and Conure became too noisy, putting on a training tape actually shut them both up!).

Many of us may not even realize that our birds have talking potential. The old books list only a few parrots the authors thought could talk. I never realized that my own Rainbow Lorikeet, Romana, had the capability of talking till the breeder mentioned it. Once I heard this, I immediately started teaching her. Some parrots may not be the best talkers, but it's fun trying to teach them, and they could always surprise you.

Even if you work outside your home, when you're with your bird, interact with it. "Hello" may not have meaning to your bird right away; why not try something else? Every time you feed a bite of food to your parrot, say, "MMMMM. I like it!" As you nuzzle your bird, make kissing sounds. Your bird will associate the actions with the words or sounds. My Chattering Lory, Rita, loved to talk. She also loved to play. At one point, she quickly learned these three sentences, and put them together herself in this (correct) order: "You want to come out? I want to come out. I want to play!" In fact when she first learned the sentence, "I want to play." she had trouble remembering to add the word "to." She repeated that particular sentence to me, again and again, so that I would correct her. Both Lories also knew that when I said."Now!" Now!" Now!" From both birds, when cage cleaning time approached.

Some birds, such as African Greys, start talking later in life, by about their first year, others mumble a lot before finally speaking that first word clearly. Remember, too, your bird may initially prefer some words over others. My Amazon, Vic, who spent part of his life in a florist's shop, says "Hello, or "Hi," in a variety of voices. He'll also produce a smoker's cough, but only for men, Rita loved to say her name over and over. Cato, my Black-Capped Lory, loves to ask, "What are you doing?", and practices all my laughs!

One old theory stated that you should never start whistling at parrots, because they find whistling easier than talking. African Greys seem to have an innate ability to wolf whistle. Yet, if they are taught well, can out-talk many parrots. Rita could whistle, but absolutely loved to talk, when she died suddenly, at age 1 1/2, she could say, clearly, 32 phrases; she'd learned two more just before she died. Cato intersperses a clear sentences with noises or whistles; he whistles themes from "The Man With No Name," and "Close Encounters of The Third Kind." I now have to dial my cordless phone away from my two Lories, because they'll whistle the beeps my phone makes as I dial.

If you whistle poorly (like me), your bird may whistle poorly, too. Some of our words may also seem unclear to a bird. If you want a birds to speak clearly, so should you. Many of our consonants are hard for a parrot to say. You will have to emphasize those letters, and sometimes substitute a harder sound to make a softer one appear clearer, For example, "you're cude," unless you make a clear "t" sound. The "D" sound in "you're a good bird" may sound like "Brr" to your pet. Make up a word like "pert" or "bert" to emphasize the correct sounds, if the bird is having trouble saying the phrase.

Rita loved her name, but it sounded like "Reeduh," because I was lazy in my own pronunciation! When I stressed her name as "Ree-tah," she quickly changed it. My Amazon Vic, says, "What a good Victor boy!" and "What a good bo(y)." The word "boy" in the first sentence sounds like "boy-yee." The second just trails off to "bo." It may seem silly to pronounce words this way (like "boy-yee") But I've found that it works. And, if you show enthusiasm over each phrase you teach, your bird will pick up your excitement and want to earn those funny sounds.

If your bird is ready to learn something, you'll see him stop and stare intently at you. The pupils will change as you speak (or whistle). Try writing up a list of a few words, sentences, or sounds that you eventually want your parrot to learn. At first the bird may not want to learn "Hello," but may more readily say, for example, "come here," instead. Cato can't say, "I want to come out," Yet, but he definitely understands what it means! Be patient, calm, and even excited about the words you're teaching. A bored "Hello" won't get as much of a response; an excited "Hello!" might.

What should you teach? Keep in mind that many of out larger handfed parrots may live up to 70 years, if given a good diet and proper care. What do you want to hear for seventy years? Obviously, if you don't like opera, don't teach it to your birds. A popular song or catchphrase today might be out of style tomorrow. (There are probably a few parrots around saying, "Cowabunga Dude.")

Be careful of profanity, too. Many a bird have been sold due to excessive use of profanity. That's terribly unfair to the birds; after all, he may have learned those words thinking they would please you. Profanity gets attention for the wrong reasons.

My friends in Phoenix responded to an ad for a young, handicapped African Grey. The bird was cheap because it had an incredibly obscene vocabulary. The owner's two teenaged sons had taught the bird increasingly more elaborate vulgarities. My friends didn't buy the bird, but they suggested to the owner that she change her ad to emphasize the bird's crude vocabulary. This raunchy Grey now lives in a biker bar!. Most parrots with obscene vocabularies are not as lucky as Lucky. When you consider that your bird may outlive you, ending up in a new home, then choose the words you teach carefully.

Thankfully, a lot has changed over in recent years. Now, there are many bird books and magazines available to help the novice bird owner. Avian enthusiasts can join local bird clubs to meet others who share their interests. If problems do occur, these club members can recommend behaviorists. As a result, not only can our pets have longer life expectancies, but we can also have healthy interactions between happy owners and contented pets. And, as a science fiction writer once pointed out, If we can't communicate with our own planet's intelligent species, how can we hope to speak to any others? Looking at a brighter future with our birds, let's have some close encounters of the avian kind.

Copyright © 2004 Toews Parrot Place

Last modified: November, 2007