Hyacinth macaw

There was a video on Youtube some years ago featuring an african grey with the nastiest vocabulary I have ever heard. It said not only the worst of the worst words known to English slang, but it used them to descriptively detail human anatomy.

It was obvious that these words had not been simply overheard and repeated – they had been taught. The video had a gazillion hits on it. I am by no means prudish, but hearing these words said with an african grey’s perfect clarity, my jaw bounced off the floor.

congo african grey

There are those who might find this kind of thing funny. Let me tell you why it is not:

Often, unforeseen thing happen in life. People lose their jobs and their houses – eventually we all die. Circumstances may dictate that your bird be rehomed. We need to prepare our parrots in many ways for that possibility. They should be well socialized and able to adapt to change. They should NOT be able to vividly describe activities that take place in a bedroom.

A bird that has an offensive vocabulary will be difficult to rehome. It would not be suitable for a family with children or for those who are sensitive to vulgarity. It might be hard to find a willing bird sitter when you want to go on vacation, and it might cause people to not want to visit your home.

Blue throated macaws

Our birds pick up enough colorful language just by overhearing what we say in their presence. Abu, my first umbrella cockatoo, learned the term “shut up” in an innocent way. A friend came by to show me a guitar he had bought for next to nothing from a person who was unaware of its value. When he told me what he had paid, I excitedly said: “Shut. Up.” (in the same way you would say “no way”). That’s all it took. From that point on, whenever the conversation in the house would get lively, Abu would tell us to “shut up”.

One day my daughter’s teacher came by to drop something off and she asked to see the parrot my daughter talked about all day long. She greeted Abu with a cheerful hello and was told to “shut up” in an equally cheerful tone. It was a bit embarrassing.

Umbrella cockatoo

Wild parrots learn about appropriate behavior from their flockmates. For a captive parrot, that responsibility falls to us. Just as is the case with children, we have to demonstrate with our own behavior that which is acceptible, since it will likely be imitated. Ultimately, our bird will pay the price for our lapses in judgement.

Blue and gold macaw

In my opinion, one of the things that most strongly speaks to the intellect of a parrot is the use and reworking of the words in its vocabulary. Taking two unrelated words and placing them together to form another word or phrase with an entirely different meaning is the “recombining” of words.
Many birds have the ability to put labels to the things around them  Some words are the names of objects, such as a bell. Other words are adjectives such as colors, big or small, hard or soft. Birds have repeatedly shown a remarkable ability to correctly apply an appropriate descriptive label to a given noun.
In her work with the famous african grey, Alex, Dr Irene Pepperberg taught Alex to identify the substance of which an item composed. To simplify this question, she would ask “What matter?”  Alex would respond with: “paper” or “wood”, for example. In one test, one such substance was cork, a bottle stopper.
Alex was smart, and he was also a bird and so was familiar with a variety of nuts. He, by his own choosing, renamed the unshelled almond “cork-nut” and would call it only that. He also referred to an apple as a ban-erry. Dr. Pepperberg makes the assumption that this combination comes from “ban”ana, perhaps because of the similar color inside the fruit, and ch”erry” as both fruits share a similar shape and color on the outside.

This is the ultimate example of the recombination of words. Think, for a moment, about the brain power and creativity that goes into making that connection.

I have a friend whose african grey strung together this sentence on his own: “Wanna go big, red chair”. This was a request for a ride in the car, which is red, big, and actually does contain “chairs”. Someone else told me that their blue and gold macaw referred to meowing as “kitty song”. Pretty adorable, and smart.

Has your bird ever made the connection to put the name of an object together with an adjective, such as “ball” and “blue”, or “water” and “cold”?

Congo african grey

I have a friend who rescues parrots in her city, sort of as a hobby and just out of the goodness of her heart.  She takes in several parrots a year, rehabs them and eventually places them into carefully screened new homes.
A couple of years ago, a twenty-something year old man contacted her and asked her to take in his young timneh african grey that he could no longer afford to care for.
This sweetly dispositioned parrot was in good health and appeared well maintained when he arrived. When asked what the parrot’s name was, the young man looked down at the floor and seemed reluctant to answer. Finally, he admitted that the bird’s unfortunate given name was…well, let’s just say it begins with “F” and rhymes with “truckhead” As you can imagine, “Little Trucker“, as he was affectionately called, had a very colorful vocabulary overall. No big surprise, my friend needed to change this bird’s name right away.

Blue throated macaw

Our parrots have a very limited use of our language. They make connections to the things and people around them by using labels like: “blue”, “ball”, or “play”. Some go on to verbalize an understanding of descriptive words like: “hot” and “cold”, “hard” and “soft”, “big” and “small”. It’s all about having a name for everything. This includes themselves.
Their name and how it is used tells your parrot a lot. First, it is your verbal connection to the bird. When you call to Kiwi in the morning as you are getting up for the day, it tells her that she is valued. There is no question in her mind that you are addressing her specifically and haven’t forgotten about her or her needs during the course of the night. It is an important  connection. Secondly the tone in which you use her name belies your mood and intentions.
Consider the impact on a bird to suddenly lose that connection.  New home, new owners…new name?  Really??

Cockatiel

While shopping for supplies one day I saw a new cockatiel in the bird store that I often frequented in Chicago. When I asked about him, I was told that he was brought in  by a customer who had learned that her son had developed an allergy to the bird. He was sweet and pretty and I couldn’t resist taking him home with me that day. He came with his cage, but not his name. That was the one thing they had forgotten to ask the formers owners. It was a few months before they could get a return call from them for this vital piece of information.
He was settling in nicely with my growing flock of cockatiels, but wasn’t very interactive with the family.

The call finally came that the former owners had been reached and we now had the bird’s name. I ran upstairs and greeted him with a big “HI COCOA!”, and something happened. His body language suddenly changed, and he came to the side of the cage wanting to be taken out. He was overjoyed at hearing his name and from that day on he was a different bird.  My daughter and I still talk about the event to this day. He felt recognized by us, finally, and it changed him and our relationship.

Budgie

It is completely understandable that one might want to rename a rehomed bird, and it can be done successfully over a period of time. It’s a simple, but slow, procedure that involves phasing in the new name in a way that makes it clear to the bird that this new label applies to him. During this transition, you will want not to exclude the former name entirely so as not to break the connection with your bird while you are establishing the new one. Your bird needs to be called by name, whatever it is you call him.
The easiest and quickest way to change a bird’s name is by giving a new one that sounds similar to the old one. Examples of this are an owner who changed her bird’s name from Panda to Brandi and anothers change from Lizbon to Bonnie. Both were accomplished in a short time.

African grey

Back to Truckhead: When the time came to rehome him, my friend made no secret of his background. She had already experienced some unfortunate timing in the delivery of his expletives, once during a business meeting at her house and another time when her daughter’s wedding planner was present. She explained to the new owners that the best way to make these words lose their power was to never use them and never respond to them.

He is doing well in his new home.  He is now called Lucky, and indeed he is.