Are Amazons Born "Knowing" Amazon Sounds?

[PickleMeDickles]

I have often wondered about the "vocabulary" Sass was born with. In addition to human words, she has a HUGE repertoire of amazing very "non-human" noises, and they each seem to have a meaning, which seems to depend on the context in which they are made AND the tone/pattern/intensity of those sounds.

For example, she has a very distinct "honk". If she in on The Amazon War Path and does her honk, all other living things must respect said honk or you will lose a body part. If I am delivering an extra special morsel and I am honked at, it is more like "WOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH!". Then there is the "trill". A loud persistent trill means, "I'M LOST (OR SCARED). COME NOW, SOS!". A trill that is soft and turns up at the end (like humans do at the end of a sentence when asking a question) is exactly what it sounds like, it's a question. She will make this noise when she wants something (share a treat, a toy she can't get at, transportation to a favorite spot). Then there is the excited laser guns Star Wars noise when she is letting loose and loving life.

So, are these natural to DYH Amazons? All Amazons? Or does a captive bred bird not exposed to other birds "make up" these sounds? Thanks in advance for any insight!

-Jen

 

[PrimorandMoxi]

Oh great question, I have wondered the same thing.

what about the sort of cat-call whistle?
is that something that parrots always did?
did we teach them that or did they teach us?

Also Primor will so clearly shake his head "no" when he does not want something.

 

[wrench13]

'Boats can likely answer that best. Salty has his range of sounds, some he learnedwiith us, and I'm sure some he just.....does them. He has his own contact call for me, and one for Geri. He sorta bleeps softly when its nitey nite. He has a concentrated , repetitive soft squawk when he is beating up on one of his bells. A LOUD boisterous semi-scream, that usually starts with his crazy laugh and just degenerates into that, his glad to be alive and a bird sounds. He also says lots of stuff and imitates certain sounds, like the squeaky hinge on the computer cabinet. How much of that is YSA amazon lingo and how much is learned ? Dunno

I just read yesterday that when parrots who were in captivity escape and join feral flocks, the feral flock will pick up some of the words or phrases the escapee brings. Amazing.

 

[PickleMeDickles]

Wrench, so you (and Geri) too have been honored with an “Amazon Name”. If I were to go back in time and redo my bucket list, close to the top would have been “To love, and be loved by, a crazy Amazon who cares enough about me to grant me an official “Amazonian” name! I am: MAAAWWWWWWW!!!!!

The fact that it sounds an awful lot like “Mom” is completely coincidental, as my Amazonian name is 100% SassyByrds idea, but friends get a big kick out of it.

 

[SailBoat]

My very first Amazon was a wild caught adult LC. She came with a fairly complete (likely complete, but selectively used) series of LC Regional Amazon sounds. Along the way, we had been graced with a YN and she had been Parent Raised. she had a basic set of YN Regional Amazon sounds and a rich set of North America sounds, noises and voices. Our current owner, Julio was hand raised and although he has a fair set of North America sounds, noises and voices there are no DYHA regional sounds.

That all said, there appears to be a few common sounds that all of our Amazons use and that is a warning /fear scream. Commonly, heard when a Bird of Prey is seen over-head (or an airplane).
Sadly, with the exception of a very limited number of warning /fear scream type calls, they appear to learn the vast majority of their vocabulary from those around him or her. This is support from field research is which sound tracks from different parts of those Amazons with large regions have variations in their vocabulary.
When we spend the time to connect their sounds, we become aware that they have a rich and wide vocabulary. It is up to us to link the meaning to their sounds. The more we link, the more we find just how much we are missing regarding the World around us!
Enjoy!!!

 

[wrench13]

As a connected comment, our little BeeBee parrot, had a certain call, which he would do almost constantly, ( unless he was eating, getting scratches or whistling). I had read that their native sound was supposed to be a churrchurr kind of call, in the wild. We couldn't figure out where got this call from! Until I took him to the shop ( a parrot shop) for a wing clip th first time, and I realized that EVERY parrot they had there did the same call that Max was doing, so this was a communally learned call in that particular shop. Who knows, maybe in other shops with a given population of birds that don;t move so quickly, the parrots might have a different call?

And yeah,Pickle, Geri and I have both been graced. Salty also says Hi Daddy and Hi Geri when we come home, and says those at no other time at all.