My girl, Harry was the first quaker to move in and the first bird of my current flock. I was blown away by her language skills, our next quaker was Zeke who could only say a few words when he joined us, Harry spent many hours teaching Zeke the words she knew, it was fascinating to hear them, Zeke became a lot more talkative with Harry’s help. Our next quaker was an adult male and again Harry insisted the new kid brush up his speaking skills. I brought baby Wilson home and he said his first words clearly before he was completely weaned. The three of them talk constantly, they talk to every human they have contact with, they say please and thank you, good morning, good night, come here, be a good boy/girl, How are you?, Whaaattt?, Did you do that?, I like that, I’m cold, Stop, Hush, Who is that?, Come out, Close the door, Turn it up, Turn it off..... If one of them meows, barks, cries or quacks, the others do to, we don’t have a cat, a baby or a duck. Sam has several phrases that Harry and Wilson never say, Nite, nite, precious, Don’t bite Momma, I love you sooo much, I want a cookie (he never gets cookies but he calls all treats cookies), water ( from a spray bottle, he loves baths), he says, Want to play, Don’t fly away (as he flies away) and my favorite, You are a quaker parrot, hahaha. Harry also has a few phrases and words of her own that the males don’t say, she tells me often, You’re wearing me out, and, You are a good, good girl, and when she’s happy with me she calls me, Hey Girl, she has a few other phrases I’d rather not mention here. I kept a notebook with a list of words each quaker could say clearly for a while but I gave up the practice when the lists grew too long to keep up with.
I never thought I’d take our quakers’ talent for communication for granted but honestly we’ve all become so accustomed to quaker language we talk to them as if it’s perfectly normal to have conversations with birds. Occasionally when someone meets them for the first time and the quakers demonstrate their skills, the expressions on the guests’ faces remind me how fortunate we are to have quaker family members. I’ve always said quakers learn to speak so they are better able to argue with humans. Our Amazon and African Grey have amazing vocabularies too but this is about quakers.
I really think quakers are more inclined to talk because in the wild they are a unique parrot species, the only parrot species to build community nests with sticks, the males guard the nests, they have incredible communication skills, in the wild, it’s a survival mechanism. Texas has multiple colonies of wild quakers, I’ve read a couple of accounts of observers hearing the quakers speak a few English words to each other, we can assume, a pet quaker who escaped his home and joined the colony decided to use his words and taught them to his wild relatives.
Conclusion, parrot language is contagious, it evolves within a flock, no matter where the flock makes it’s home. If you want your parrots to talk, talk to them, all parrots have the ability to speak. Remember though, some birds like some humans prefer not to speak often or at all, that just means they communicate in other amazing ways.
