So how well does your ekkie talk?

Just curious as to how well ekkies speak in general. I have met a few people with ekkies in my suburb and they only know the odd word or two and tend to be generally quiet.

Where as Yoshi is just under 2 yrs old and if i was to guess I would say knows at least 50 words probably more and the calls of all the birds living in our area and generally just doesn't shut up when there is any kind of background noise around him. And to think when I first got him I thought he would never speak. I based that assumption around having a ringneck once who never learned any human words.

Would love to hear about the how well or not other people ekkies speak?

That's really cool. How old is Yoshi?

Jack probably knows 10ish words and he's a little over a year old. They're still pretty garbled, but I can make out a few phrases that I say to him. He doesn't talk to me, but recently he's been saying something to me when I approach him with food bowl in hand.

Parker has a vocabulary of maybe 30 words and phrases; and speaks very clearly. But he's a closet talker, and only talks when we are out of sight so it's an attention getting device.
Just the other morning I took my dog out, walking in front of the cage. Went back to bed, and for 20 minutes he rolled through a chunk of his vocab trying to get me back out.

Im working to reinforce any talking in an effort to get him to talk in front of people. Very hit or miss right now but oh-so-marginal improvement.

Ekko talks really well, but only when strangers are around. He will talk to my hubby but only when he is cleaning cages. He speaks in both my voice, my hubby's voice, and mimics what the other birds say in their voices.
I'm not even sure how to guess at how many words as he says so many things. He can also sing most of the chorus to a song from Oliver Company, which he only does when we are vacuuming..lol.

Angel vocalizes very well when she desires to speak - and it isn't often and rarely in front of me. She tends to speak late at night.

Fairly limited vocabulary, but spoken clearly: "Angel", "helloooo", Red bird red red bird very red bird', "hi Angel."

My freind has an eclectus that uses whole phrases in context to communicate. I think he is around 2.

Mine says
Hiiiiiiii.
Hi bird.
Hi Squacky. (His name for 14 years... We use it as his nickname now)
Hi Squacky-Wack.
Squack-a-wack-a-wack
Scoobydoobydo!
Hi baby
Beep beep
And whistles. He has a very clear voice and you know exactly what he is saying. He also imitates a human yell lol.

lizard said:

That's really cool. How old is Yoshi?

Jack probably knows 10ish words and he's a little over a year old. They're still pretty garbled, but I can make out a few phrases that I say to him. He doesn't talk to me, but recently he's been saying something to me when I approach him with food bowl in hand.

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Haha that's cool. Yoshi is just under 2 years old.

SilverSage said:

My freind has an eclectus that uses whole phrases in context to communicate. I think he is around 2.

Mine says
Hiiiiiiii.
Hi bird.
Hi Squacky. (His name for 14 years... We use it as his nickname now)
Hi Squacky-Wack.
Squack-a-wack-a-wack
Scoobydoobydo!
Hi baby
Beep beep
And whistles. He has a very clear voice and you know exactly what he is saying. He also imitates a human yell lol.

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That's really cute. 14 years old. That's awesome. Do they continue to learn words beyond a few years of age old?

Yoshi's voice can go from completely clear to very garbled on the same words depending on how is feeling.
In regards to the context thing, not sure if this counts but he has picked up the following things:

He always says either BRB or bye byeeee! when people are moving past him or away from him or if i have him in the car and i park somewhere he knows i am about to go out and says it lol.

He says go potty when he does his business(I constantly said it to him everytime I saw him potty lol. Haven't bothered with any kind of potty training though)

When he see's me eating and wants it's 'yummmy yummy ohhhhh delililicious'

And a fair few more.

I do wonder if he actually knows what he is trying to communicate or just associates a word with an action. Either way it's very cute.

Terry57 said:

Ekko talks really well, but only when strangers are around. He will talk to my hubby but only when he is cleaning cages. He speaks in both my voice, my hubby's voice, and mimics what the other birds say in their voices.
I'm not even sure how to guess at how many words as he says so many things. He can also sing most of the chorus to a song from Oliver Company, which he only does when we are vacuuming..lol.

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LOL that's hilarious. Yes it's amazing how they can get the tone and pitch of someone's voice perfectly lol.

Yes the vacuum(and any other background noise like a tap sets Yoshi off). That's pretty cool that he gets a whole chorus. How old is Ekko?

I have noticed Yoshi singing something in the last few weeks(and kinda dancing) but it's very garbled and mostly sounds like his singing heavy metal(what with all the violent head-shaking he has going with it lol).

Birds continue learning new words as they get older, especially if they are encouraged to do do from an early age.

Maya says a few words VERY clearly, and imitates my wife's voice so well when saying her own name that she's even fooled me! She also speaks in a deep voice, a high pitched voice, a gravelly Wolverine voice and an "old man" voice. Hysterical!

And then there's Jolly. He speaks in an approximation of my voice when saying "Good boy", or "well done." He also has a strange robotic voice he likes to use sometimes, and even sings a song about his name on occasion. Lol! Like Maya, many of his vocalizations are extremely clear, though I believe he has the larger vocabulary of the two.

As for speaking in context, Jolly says, "Out! Out!" when he wants to be taken out of his cage. He also asks "What'cha doin'?", but the jury's out as to his understanding of what he's asking. Hahaha!

Not sure of how many words each one knows in all, But they do pick up very swiftly.

Montego - 9 yrs old knows about 30 words. Speaks early in the morning or when the grandkids are around.
Winston - 20 years old knows about a dozen words that we know of and rarely speaks. Both are Red Sided males.

Oh, I also forgot that sometimes Tucson yells "HI KUDO!" At the top of his lungs. He used to live with a cockatoo named Kudo

He hasn't learned any new words since coming to me at the end of June this year, but my BHP, Mel, has picked up a whole new phrase at 7 years old, she learned to say "you want your breakfast?" There are other phrases and words she may have learned here I'm. It sure, but that one is in my voice and it is what I say to her lol.

Cherry, our female eclectus, is 13 years old this month. We've had her for a year and she could only say “Hello” when we got her, aged 12. We’ve managed to teach her some new stuff so she can now also say (with varying degrees of recognisability):

"Come on then" (in context)
"Hello my darling" (nearly fell over when she suddenly came out with this)
'What you doing, huh?"

By the way, when she shrieks “Hello” it’s her flock call (usually when one of us leaves the room)!

She's generally quite quiet and doesn't really talk until after lunch and dinner / when she's having a doze. Some of her mumblings are very funny / weird! I think we could teach her more if we spent a lot of time on it.

She also likes music and ‘singing’ (which isn’t really singing but honking, whistling and making various ‘noises’), which is really lovely.

Best wishes,

Anita

My boy Jiraiya is over 2 years old. This is basically his vocabulary...

Jiraiya!
Hello -Jiraiya/sweetheart/cutie
Hi -Buddy/sweetheart/cutie
You're so cute
I love you
What are you doing?
Huh?

This little piggy went to market... (trails off the rest of the song, but gets to the end and says, 'Weeeeeweeeewee, all the way' )

1, 2, 3, 4, 5! (usually messes up the 3 or 4 XD)
Can I have it?
Drop it
No!
Stop it.
Be quiet! (usually said after he screams. [squawk!] Be quiet! [squawk!]. Yeah, that backfired lol)

Buhbye!
Going to work!
Going to shops!
Do you want a Shower?
Mmm, Yum! Delicious!
Apple
Water
Hey!
Want Dinner!
Beautiful!
Will! Out! (Our dog's name. Telling him to get out lol)
Come here

What does dog say? Woof-woof
Kitty Cat - Meow
Cockadoo! (Supposed to be cocka-doodle-doo)
gobble-gobble-gobble

Bless You
Peekaboo!
Big Yawn!
Twinkle twinkle little star
Go Potty!
Good boy!
Funny Boy
Goodnight. Bed time.
Good Morning

He also loves singing along to music, but just sings along with noises mostly. He laughs. He does the microwave beep. He also copies our coughing and sneezing, which, to our dismay, just so happen to be two of his all time favorite noises. Argh. So loud and annoying. Wish he would stop lol.

He also has some robot voice. We're not sure what he's going on about but he talks in the voice like he is on a mission, having a good ol' conversation with us. Probably his attempt to copy our 'regular' talking voice and not our high pitch 'bird' talking voice.

If he is on my shoulder and I am talking to someone, he often chimes in with an appropriate laugh, or perfectly placed 'Yeah..', which cracks us up every time.
He will also mimic words on the spot sometimes. Like, he has said 'fridge' clearly when I have gone to the fridge and said it but he hasn't added it to his vocabulary.

It was fun writing that down. I didn't realize he actually knew so many different words/phrases. Most of them he knows in context.