Question?

[Breeze]

Do parrots have their own language? Like in whale pods how each pod has their own language, does each species have their own language?


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[Rozalka]

Each species of parrots have two types of language: "body" and "of sounds". I think body language is similar to all parrots but some species are "other" so it can be sometimes different.
Language of sounds is another for different species. For example each species have another reaction of getting scared, being happy etc One thing is shown in different ways by different species eg squawking, chirping etc
For example what my parrots do when are scared of something:
GCC: single or not single loud squawk
Bourkes: single shirp(s) or only escape
Budgies: in one of my books this is named as "quiet cackling", in the past I heard this voice but my current budgies only escape
I don't remember which species, I was reading that their reaction of getting scared is wheezing

 

[ChristaNL]

It gets worse: Japie was next to a couple of amazons for 5+ years.
(5-10)
So he is more or less bilingual - all at the same time!!
(so every non-verbal 'sentence' resembles something like half english, half portugeze)
I do understand quite a bit of "african grey" but I have NO idea what he tells me sometimes!
(I need the amazon sticky's to figure it out!)

Appie came in a bit later..and now she is learning from him!
(She is a 'pure' grey, but like a tourist...she picks up some things from him that a definitely amazonian!)


But beware of species meanings: raised/ fluffed up 'beard'feathers mean very different things for different parrotspecies!
(the difference between a cuddle and a bite)

 

[EllenD]

Yeah, I'd say that not only do all species have their own languages, but some sub-species also have their own languages...I remember being absolutely amazed when I first brought my Quaker Parrot Lita home, because her sounds are like no other bird I had ever heard before....And not only her sounds, but Quakers also have extremely unique head, neck, and body motions that go along with their different sounds...

 

[noodles123]

I think they do, but it is more of a "breathing" language than we give them credit for. Some parrots (and crows too) actually learn new things and teach them to their babies and flock members (outside of things that would be considered instinctual...very specific things). For example, I read about flocks of wild cockatoos in Australia speaking English due to the influence of a few domesticated cockatoos who had been released and joined their flock. In this instance, the non-domesticated birds picked up and used the sounds that they learned from the once-captive birds. Also, there is a documentary about crows, which discusses parenting influences and the documentary, after having a negative experience with a specific human, a mother crow "tells" the other crows (and her offspring---born after the incident) about this individual and the whole bunch of them use a specific call when he was near (this call was not some generalized alert call- it was specific to him and it was met with panic/fear/alert). It is pretty interesting.

 

[BeatriceC]

Yeah, I'd say that not only do all species have their own languages, but some sub-species also have their own languages...I remember being absolutely amazed when I first brought my Quaker Parrot Lita home, because her sounds are like no other bird I had ever heard before....And not only her sounds, but Quakers also have extremely unique head, neck, and body motions that go along with their different sounds...

Even different flocks of the same species can have different "accents" and grammatical structure in their calls. Let me try to find the study published a few years ago that went into detail on that. It's fascinating.