Talk in context.

[Billy29]

I woke up this morning to Mango saying a very clear Hello. Up until now it had been mumbled.

How many of you have parrots that talk in context?

 

[antoinette]

I woke up this morning to Mango saying a very clear Hello. Up until now it had been mumbled.

How many of you have parrots that talk in context?

Well done to Mango and high five for you for teaching it to him.
I taught Mishka to talk in context right from the begining.

 

[Billy29]

Thank you, I definitely, try and put my time in with him.

Mishka is obviously a very special parrot and I would never expect Mango to get to Mishkas level of speaking or nowhere close to it. Mishka also has the advantage of being a CAG and Mango is a YSA, not trying to take away from what you put into him but I think they are considered to be smarter.

As far as Amazons go from what I heard, YSA are moderate talkers. I met Mangos older sister, she was being boarded when I got Mango and she is a pretty good talker and sang opera.

 

[antoinette]

Thank you, I definitely, try and put my time in with him.

Mishka is obviously a very special parrot and I would never expect Mango to get to Mishkas level of speaking or nowhere close to it. Mishka also has the advantage of being a CAG and Mango is a YSA, not trying to take away from what you put into him but I think they are considered to be smarter.

As far as Amazons go from what I heard, YSA are moderate talkers. I met Mangos older sister, she was being boarded when I got Mango and she is a pretty good talker and sang opera.

Thank you Mishka is very special....
African Greys are know to be the best talkers I agree BUT any guardian willing to put in hours and hours of training can get a bird talking as well as Mishka can.

 

[henpecked]

I have a hen nape who talks in context. Mostly things like "come here". She also has sounds she makes in Amazon language that i've learn to mean certain things.

 

[Billy29]

I'm going to try and teach Mango to talk in context, we will see what happens.

 

[torrap]

I agree with henpecked, whatever they say it mostly means "come here".....
I know my DYH knows that if she says "How are you?" she will always going to get a respond, so she does it about 50 times in the morning....It sure sounds like she wants to make sure I am still OK after a night of sleep.... . But, when I get to work and someone asks me how I am, I just want to say "just shut up, please".....most of the time I just say "You sound like my parrot".....

Yesterday when I was mowing my lawn Simba being outside was watching...So to the delight of my neighbors she was screaming "Look at you!", then she was giggling (I am sure it looked funny to her), then she was screaming "Peek-a-boo, I see you". She was actually talking more than ever, probably because she was outside and was super happy.
I am sure she knows when to use what ever she has in her vocabulary.

 

[LoryLover]

Billy, talk to Mango like you were talking to another person, and you will be amazed at what great buddies the two of you will be.

My husband and I have talked to our Lory like she was a person, ever since we got her as a 6 week old baby. She talks in context, and even changes her tone of voice accordingly. Such as greeting us when we get home, she'll call out HI!! in a super happy voice. If she gets no response, her next HI! will be in a searching tone of voice. If still no response, her next Hi will be in a sad, I'm being ignored tone of voice.

As soon as we respond to the HI!, she then says "Come Here!!".... pauses, then says "Want some food?" We take her to the kitchen for snacks often, so that's why she's saying want some food.

She's always telling us "you're so sweet, yes you are"... even if I just look at her and smile, she'll then say that to me.

She's very obedient too... she'll respond to us saying come here to her, and when we tell her no, she'll stop immediately what she's doing... if she sees us pick up a tissue, she makes a loud, nose blowing noise. If we pick up something from the floor with a paper towel, she relates that to her occasional potty accidents and shouts out "no potty on the floor!" She is potty trained though and most of the time when she's out of her cage, she'll say "gotta go potty" and wait until we put her on a perch in her cage to go potty. If her potty dish is within sight, she'll race over to it, go potty in it and then go back to her playing.

She's super responsive to pretty much everything, and we get a kick out of her laughing, especially when she's laughing along with the laugh track on tv. If it's quiet and I start dancing, she'll start humming a tune.

She's a super good companion and very entertaining.

Even if there's no loving bond made between a human and their parrot, I believe the parrot is intelligent enough to behave/speak in context. But if there's a loving bond, it just gets better!

 

[ShellyBorg]

My boy only has about 10 words but he knows how to put them together and get his point across!

 

[Fae]

My rescue BFA is very shy about talking even though he knows several words, but the day we took him to the vet he started clearly calling "Hello? Hello?! HELLO???" in a worried, loud, but VERY clear voice because he didn't know where I was and needed me.

I'd agree when they need the attention they'll let you know by speaking clearly. I've been working with Arco to "sing for me" and now he whistles for me every time he needs me.

 

[Birdman666]

Of all the birds I've had...

I have had two that were fully cognitive and talked in context...

I've had several more that picked up individual words and phrases in context. (Seems like they all do that.) But I have had two that were cognitive, and at times, conversational. Like, jaw dropping conversational...

A little dusky conure, and my CAG.

 

[Gizmomania]

Go duskies!!!

 

[Billy29]

My cockatiel would say certain phrases depending on the mood of the house. When things were happy it was Tiki pretty boy. If there was an argument it was uck oooo ahole. We didn't encourage the last one, and how he picked it up I don't know.:what:

 

[JerseyWendy]

Just like already posted, talk to Billy until you're blue in the face. Tell him EVERYTHING you are doing, and that way he will learn "context".

Our fids understand SO much more than we think, IMO.

All my birds talk in context. No, not all the time, but when they do, it's hilarious.

Example one: When my B&G is snuggling with me, he will say "Cracker??". I then tell him "I don't have one, Niko", to which he will promptly reply "Let's go get it." As he's telling me to go get it, he will literally run up my arm and sit in anticipation of me getting up and getting him the cracker.

Example two (BOTH big macs do this): When I switch toys around, and they see me approaching their cages, they will both say "Gimme that" or "mine?" ...or "for meeee"????

Hunter will ask for a cracker by name. Forget giving her something other than a Ritz because she WILL throw it across the room. :54: She and Sam both say "Come here" "Good morning" (ONLY in the morning) "nighty night" (ONLY at night, when I tuck them in). Sam does an evil laugh when he gets into mischief. And Sam's newest thing is "Not right now", when I ask him to step up while he's eating. :32:

 

[Birdman666]

With my GW all food is "cracker" and all drink is "water."

"Want some." Is said in context. "Izzat Good?" Roughly translated means: "GIMME SOME!"

They are all cognitive to some degree, or another. By fully cognitive, I meant able to hold up their end of a conversation, and/or start one...

For Example: My CAG was bombarding me with "Wanna go outside. Wanna go for a walk." One day. I had about a dozen birds at the time, and used to "cycle" them on my evening walks. (i.e. First the small birds (conures), then the medium birds (zons, too, CAG), then the big macs.)

So, I tell Tusk it's not his turn, and that he will have to wait his turn, and I pick up my conures.

Knowing they are poop trained, my CAG tells them to "Go Poop!" in the best imitation of my voice. And they comply. Then he does his poofy bird dance and says: "Gotta clean up the poopy mess!"

Yeah, his practical jokes are sometimes evil!

Check the look on his face before you go running to answer the doorbell or the phone...

 

[horsesculpter]

I think a lot has to do with the birds need to communicate with you and in that respect single birds probably pick up more. Our Catalina macaw has a vocabulary of around two hundred phrases, some she uses all the time and some we have only heard once or twice. I don't really know how many words she knows the meaning of as many of those phrases include the same words like what, what's up with that, what're you doing, what's that, etc. she will often ask "whazzat" when you offer her something she is not familiar with. Yesterday I was peering closely at a red spot over her eye and she demanded "wat saw?" She repeated that several times when I bent to look so I do think she wanted to know what I was looking so closely at. Sometimes she will repeat something she hears immediately and never say it again. I suppose she just liked the sound of it. She doesn't imitate other kinds of sounds. It just seems to be human speech that she likes. She spent a year before we got her as a very young bird living in a backyard that was next to a school bus stop. The only people she saw were the kids and I think she wanted to get attention from them as she was lonely. That is where she learned most of her speech although she is always adding new stuff. Kids tend to talk to a parrot like they were another kid and they expect answers? I think she responded to that. She frequently talks in context. Awhile back she kept trying to climb on me when I was busy and I kept telling her to quit which was irritating her. Finally I told her " mama doesn't want you" to which she replied "wads wrong wid choo?". I have probably asked her what was wrong with her many times when she was misbehaving. When she turned it back to me she used it in perfect context.

 

[Birdman666]

Another CAG story. (Well, two more actually...)

It's not just cognition, it's the degree of empathy these creatures have...

One day, after a terrible day at work, I came home on a major downer. My CAG climbed down from the big playstand and waddled over to me, wanting to be picked up. We talked a little bit, and played one or two of our favorite games, but he could tell I was upset...

So, he climbs down my leg, and waddles back to the bird room, climbs up into his cage and begins digging through his food bowl. He pulls out a cashew (his favorite nut!) He then proceeds to climbs down from his cage and waddle back to me in the living room, signaling that he wanted to be picked up. This time, he set the nut down in my hand, and told me "It's okay. You're a good boy! And gave me a kiss beak to lips... Then he climbed down my pants leg and waddled away...

I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY KNOW, THEY JUST KNOW!

My favorite "cognitive CAG" story happened on Halloween. At my place, Rather than deal with the birds going off every time someone comes to the door, I put them out in my front yard in the tree, and sit outside and pass out candy...

Well, both my macaws are "lap birds." They like the tree, but they prefer the lap, so they will only stay up there for so long... so it wasn't long before I had one on my lap and one on my shoulder as I sat under the tree.

There was this little girl, who by the looks of her, couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 years old. It was her first Halloween, and she was so excited she was literally sprinting from house to house, with a bag of candy that was almost as big as she was...

So she comes running up to my house, and about half way across the lawn, she figures out that that big red bird on my lap WAS REAL!!! She attempted to put on the brakes, and immediately face planted under my tree, and began crying.

Tusk, my CAG, waddles out to the lowest branch directly above her, leans over and says: "Awww... whatsamatter? You're Okay. It's okay. Com'on. Com'ere." Now, my other birds all know the words, "Com'on. Com'ere." so when Tusk started repeating it over and over, they all did. By this point we had a crowd of about two dozen onlookers with their jaws dropped.

I made a point of holding Maggie's beak with two fingers, so she could scratch his head, and I gave her extra candy.

So, yeah. They're cognitive.

 

[jbail1026]

I'm loving all of these stories! George is our 25 year old family bird - YNA. We got him when he was 2 and I was 12. He learned most of his vocab in the first 5 or so years we had him. He's so cool. He actually uses our tones of voice - when he sees me he says "Hiii!" in my higher voice and then keep talking and answering me in that tone. When he sees my dad, it's "Hi, George" in this lower/deeper voice and they speak in low tones together. You know who he wants to talk to. He always says "Good morning" in a super sweet voice in the AM, but it really means "I hear you in here. Get this cover off of me!" He rocks.

 

[Birdman666]

Napes are fun. We had a foster nape for about a year. Husband's bird, couple divorced. Didn't have suitable living arrangements for the bird, PLUS the bird nagged constantly in the wife's voice...

BOB! TAKE OUT THE TRASH!

SHUTUP BOB!

BOB! BOB! BOB!

BOB! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!

The bird's name was Pico, but we called him "Bob."

Anyway, guess where we placed him...

The real owner, Bob, missed his bird... he got back on his feet, and they were reunited. YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT BIRD'S FACE LIGHT UP WHEN HIS FORMER OWNER WALKED IN THE ROOM! There was absolutely no way I could say no to giving him back the bird, it was obvious how bonded they both were.

 

[Mayden]

Merlin only knows 3/4 words/phrases.

Merlin
Whaaaat?
Whatya doin?
Nanighttt
Mummmy.

Nanight is only ever used when he's tired, so I guess that's context. 'Whaaatya doing' is when he generally can't see us, or doesn't have our attention.

Charlie says 'whatya doing' (picked up from Merlin) if we have food and arn't sharing. It's the only time he 'speaks'.

Very interesting. I think all birds can learn context, as long as you speak to them in context!