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Interesting new findings

well, they have names alright
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I know that my birds know who chubby (my guineapig) is. one day my mom was talking to them and happened to mention chubby, who was below their cage (she wasn't looking at him or giving any other clues) and they immediately looked down to where chubby was.
They obviously know other words too... like treats, and other things.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050711/birdname.html
the last sentence is pretty funny. lol You can only imagine what they were telling each other :p
 
Interesting.

Yeah, and I can just imagine what sort of coded "names" my parokeets were chirping me when I forgot to feed them their treats!
 
One of our african greys would call the dog over by name, and then start dropping handfulls of food out of the cage to it.
 
you mean beakfulls?
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Yeah, and I can just imagine what sort of coded "names" my parokeets were chirping me when I forgot to feed them their treats!
oh! that reminds me... they still have their little quirks but back then they only allowed one of us to take them to bed (sleeping cage). this time it was my mom's turn (sometimes they only allowed me, others my mom) and she wasn't home so I tried to get them to come with me but they just refused to.
to make the long story short, she came back late and you should have seen mango. he was furious! he screamed at her and jumped and all of that. it was hilarious lol. then she said she was sorry (still laughing) and he finally finished so he finally jumped on her shoulder so she'd take them to bed.
 
My male cockatiel, Liberty, has a 10 word vocabulary which he mixes up in sentences. He even combines "Jubilee" and "Liberty" into Juberty or liberlee depending on his mood.

He courts Jubilee by tell her she is a pretty bird, and lots of good mornings, and pronouncements that "Liberty's a bird" or "Liberty's a good boy".

I've learned the meaning of some of his chirps -- particularly the warning call which means anything from someone is on the front porch to I want to go nite nite.
 
lol. humans are the stupid ones. They can understand much more than we can.
it's always a guessing game over what my birds want. We just know they want something. We don't know if they want treats, to take a bath, if they want to come with us, or if they're just insane. LOL. I think they're just insane
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When Liberty thinks I am not responding properly to the alarm call by doing one of these things:

answer the door because the mail has come
check the door for a delivery
assure him that "those people" have a right to be on the front sidewalk by the street
or finally, take them to bed,

he comes over and starts tapping me on the chin to get my attention.

Cockatiels are unique flock birds that accept their human guardian as part of the flock. He knows his job is to be my "hearing bird" because I am deaf in one ear. He takes this job very seriously.
 
That's cool. I had a bird in the Dominican Republic with at least a 50+ word vocabulary. He knew the chorus of a song, everyone in the house's names and other words like "Hola" and "Ven Aca" (come here in spanish) he used to mimic my cousin when she was crying and she'd pause and tell him to shut up and sometimes he'd peck someone and then start laughing at them.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] you mean beakfulls?
smile_n_32.gif
No I don't mean beakfulls. I guess footfulls would be better. But it would grab a footfull of food stick its foot through the bars of the cage and drop it.
 
  • #10
lol. I forget other birds use their feet. Lovebirds don't. And my birds do make a mess when they eat. with their pellets, they lift their heads up and bite on them so pieces go flying everywhere, and with their treats they purpusefully throw away all the things they don't like :p
 
  • #11
oh, and I was just thinking... If they have names, doesn't that mean they have a sense of self? After all, for you to realize that a word means YOU, you must know YOU are YOU. :p
but it was thought that they don't have a sense of self because they "don't recognize" their reflection... so maybe that's not such a good test after all.
 
  • #12
some parrots do indeed recognize themselves, but not lovebirds
 
  • #13
I don't think Spectacled Parrots are supposed to be able to recognize themselves either
and besides, that's my point. if my birds have names (they're lovebirds), then surely they must be self-aware right? So if you say they don't recognize themselves in the mirror, then the mirror test isn't a very good test for self-awareness.
 
  • #14
As far as I know, birds have the equipment for some kind of proto-consciousness at the very least.

I saw that Einstein parrot on Leno the other night... very cool.
 
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