Parrots can be AWESOME

[kesslari]

We have an African Grey parrot named Hawkins.
He loves when I play music - especially James Brown. He sings along, in key, when I play James Brown.

Last night I played a klezmer song and Hawkins started to sing along. He started joining in with a little phrase of his own (octave-fifth). I added his phrase into part of the melody, and then he would wait until that part of the melody came around and he would sing it.

It was really, really cool. He's a funny, fun little feathered guy. I never expected to enjoy his company so much (he's my wife's pet - I'm generally a mammal lover myself) but he's awesome.

As I wrote this, he just called out "I'm Hawkins the Pterodactyl!" I love that bird...

[kesslari]

Oh, his other phrase for this morning (another thing we taught him).
In raspy distorted Ozzy voice - "I AM IRON BIRD!"

[elgecko]

My boss has an African Gray named Chuck that lives at the office. When Chuck likes a song he dances and makes wood block sounds in time. That, or he'll whistle along, but not in tune. I don't know if I"m more amazed by his many sound effects or his many voices...it's almost creepy.

Sometimes he'll get into his screeching and that can be super annoying but I love when I cover him up at night and he say "Good night Chuck, be a good bird".

[i_got_a_mohawk]

We need videos!

[carlos840]

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

We need videos!

+1

[tastybasslines]

I have a parrot, I call her my wife.

[elgecko]

I bought myself a parrot. The parrot talked. But it did not say, "I'm hungry,"........ so it died.

- Mitch Hedberg -

I wish i had a parrot. I really do, and i wouldn't teach him dirty words or songs, No. I would teach him phone numbers and addresses, and recipes. I'd use him more like a palm pilot, ya know? Or i'd teach him things that might save my life, ya know, like information, like "In case of an earthquake, get in a doorway. BRRRAAAHHHPP" "No one has freckles on their ass, use a condom. BRRAAAHHHPP" Thank you parrot. Here's a grape."

- Dave Attell -

[Fassa Albrecht]

Parrots are awesome things. There's a pet shop I go to sometimes which has the owner walking around with a parrot on her shoulder. It greets everyone that comes in by squawking its head off and then whistling this song.

[chris1125]

Sub'd for a video?

[Valiant Bandit]

Originally Posted by kesslari

We have an African Grey parrot named Hawkins.
He loves when I play music - especially James Brown. He sings along, in key, when I play James Brown.

Last night I played a klezmer song and Hawkins started to sing along. He started joining in with a little phrase of his own (octave-fifth). I added his phrase into part of the melody, and then he would wait until that part of the melody came around and he would sing it.

It was really, really cool. He's a funny, fun little feathered guy. I never expected to enjoy his company so much (he's my wife's pet - I'm generally a mammal lover myself) but he's awesome.

As I wrote this, he just called out "I'm Hawkins the Pterodactyl!" I love that bird...

Isn't it amazing how intelligent African Greys are? Mine only likes music that's in drop D/C/A with heavy screaming/distortion....Primarily because he's crazy...

But how fast he picks up on words and how he can decipher things is just mind blowing.

Every time you walk out the door whether it's 4AM or 4PM he says "Bye Bailey." (His name) ahaha....

How old is yours? Mine's 11. He's a plucker because my mother didn't give him much attention when she had him......

[onewebfoot]

Are African Grays noisy, in a squawky sense? Like Macaws? Canaries? Cockatiels?

The scary thing about parrots can be how long they live. Do parrots require some kind of legal provision for their care after the death of their owner? Is it an urban myth that Canada requires legal provision for parrots after the death of the owner, for this reason?

[MJ5150]

When you say sing...you mean like words that can be understood? I've been to peoples houses with parrots before, and they always try to show how it talks. I had to be told what it was trying to say and it was really hard to make out the words, but it was there.

-Mike

[Thor]

Hawkins?

Like "Screamin' Jay Hawkins"?

Yeah, a soundcloud or video of him screamin' along is gonna be a must.

[HaMMerHeD]

My brother has a cockatiel named Darwin which he has trained to whistle the Andy Griffith Show theme. He just belts it out for no reason. It is quite amusing.

[kesslari]

Are African Grays noisy, in a squawky sense? Like Macaws? Canaries? Cockatiels?

Macaws and Amazons are noisier than African Greys. My wife says that it's because parrots in the Amazon live in multi-species flocks, so they have to be louder to be heard by their own species.
Any parrot will be quieter if given regular attention, and loud (squawky loud) if they are not getting attention. It's their way of saying "hey, I'M HERE!"
It's like a kid - if you give them positive attention, they are less likely to act out. But if they don't get attention any other way, they'll act out.

And yeah, they live a long time. That's the flip side of, say, dogs - I know that I will outlive all of my current dogs, and probably 2 more generations of dogs. That is sad to me. Hawkins may outlive me, in which case he will go to my kid or grandkid.

Hawkins?

Like "Screamin' Jay Hawkins"?

Hawkins like Stephen Hawking - Greys are so smart, a lot of people name them "Einstein". We wanted to go one better

When you say sing...you mean like words that can be understood? I've been to peoples houses with parrots before, and they always try to show how it talks. I had to be told what it was trying to say and it was really hard to make out the words, but it was there.

When I say "sing", I mean make a melody along with me, in key. This klezmer song is in A freygish (essentially the dominant of D harmonic minor), and he was singing A (the octave)-D, on the "and of 3" and 4. He wound up singing it in a few places, but always 2 eighth notes, and those two pitches, in key and on beat.
When I play James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing" in G, he sings in G - usually G and F (the b7). He sings a motif, and I'll work it into my playing, and we'll go back and forth with it.

I haven't taught him to sing words, but he'll talk. Not usually when strangers come around (unless they've been at the house for a few hours and he's comfortable with them). He has a few times of day when he's particularly wordy - dinner time (we're in the other room so it's a way he gets attention from us) and late morning.
He sings a few melodies - the Addams' Family theme, the theme from "Close Encounters", a few others. And he has a bunch of phrases that he picks up from just being around us, as well as some that we taught him directly (like "I AM IRON BIRD"). His speech is pretty clear, and he does different voices.

The other morning I was meditating. My son (Sam) was sitting on the couch.
I heard Hawkins say:
"I AM IRON BIRD.
I am Hawkins bird.
Are you a Pterodactyl bird?"
(pause)
"Hey Sam, are you a bird?"

totally cracked me up.

I'll try to get video. With how I am with vids, it may be a while. But I agree, there is some awesomeness that needs video.

[Fassa Albrecht]

I've just remembered THIS video: Snowball (TM) - Our Dancing Cockatoo - YouTube

This is a cockatoo, but they're actually proven that he has perfect sense of rhythm.

[BlacksHole]

My wife has been raising birds (hand-feeding) for many years. We've had cockatiels, cockatoos, parakeets, love birds, macaws, parrots, etc. She has a pet mini-macaw that is just a complete pain. Even our conures weren't as noisy as this one. One odd thing about the talking birds is that it is usually the male who talks best. Females tend to squawk more (hers is a female). The best talkers are usually the African Greys. As for life span, generally the bigger the bird the longer the life. I.e., parakeets frequently do not live as much as 10 years, while cockatiels live for 12 years or so. Medium size parrots and macaws can live 50 years while the large ones can live more than 100 years.

[carlos840]

After watching a few videos of african greys on youtube i cant help but think that you should leave some R2D2 noises on next to your parrot to see if you can get him to pick that up!

How awesome would that be?

[electracoyote]

I used to own an African Grey, his name was Pepper and he was very chatty indeed. They are awesome birds, many consider them the best of the talkers.

I've heard them recite entire Shakespeare sililoquies.

This one is cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ht0...eature=related

[Phalex]

There's a guy in my neighborhood with a Macaw, it's not uncommon to see him out and about with the bird on his shoulder. He'll do light yard work with it sitting there.