hi, my name is madeline franco, and i'm hereto talk about birds, specifically i'm going to talk about talking birds, (don't interruptme sammy.) this is floyd, he is a rose breasted cockatoo, and he does talk, and maybe he'llsay, give me a kiss, (give me a kiss; give me a kiss; oh thank you; give me a kiss; giveme a kiss) well, right now he's just in the mood to make the kissing noise, so that'sgood. this is a double yellow headed amazon, arguably one of the best talkers, amazonsget very exuberant in their speech. this is greg, he will also sometimes even help mecall the other birds, he also helps me call the dog. when you walk into the room, in thebird room in the morning, he's the first one to say hello in a loud clear voice. he maynot talk now, because birds don't always talk
on command. for the people who have bird acts,and actually are able to get their birds to sing, or dance, or talk on command, be aware,that that is a really special talent, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of time to getthat to happen. this is a macrow, this is sammy, this is also a macrow, her name isjazz, (you're going to say anything?) sammy nows how to say, one particular thing thathe'll actually illustrate it, and animate it, (can you say, thunder bird? thunder bird;thunder bird; are you going to say it now? okay, good job; good job sammy. are you agood bird? are you a good bird? huh? give me a kiss. thank you.) i've taught my birdsto kiss, say thank you, to say, is it good. i think they pick up some of these thingsjust by having them repeated to them, and
they like the way they sound. it's great whenbirds talk, it's a lot of fun. over here we have an african gray, by the name of cloe.she speaks quite a bit, but she doesn't speak so much in front of other people. what she'san expert at, is imitating household noises, she does a great cell phone, she does a backupsignal, she does a couple of different alarms, she'll do an alarm, a car alarm, she doesa house alarm, and she's great at imitating the microwave, so, you get to think you'rehungry if you hear the microwave signal. it's great when birds talk, it's a lot of fun,but it shouldn't be something that makes or breaks a relationship with them. they're reallya lot of fun, you can teach them a lot of different behaviors, and they want to learn,they're very, very smart, they enjoy being
interactive, but if they don't talk, it'snot necessarily something that you can consider that they're not a good bird, i mean, a lotof birds just won't talk. however, to get your bird to talk, if you speak to them moreoften, they will talk. be aware too, that they will not only say what you think is adesirable thing to say, but they'll also pickup on somethings that might not be so desirable.i work with a parrot re-homing organization, and it's not unusual for us to get birds thathave been taught things to say that aren't really very nice, and it's more difficultto place that bird. so be careful what you say when you're with your bird, because theywill pickup on almost anything in which they like the sound.