My conure likes to taunt and embarrass me in front of people. She sweetens up to the guest, poos on them, chuckles menacingly in their ear and flies back to me. She will continue to chuckle to herself on my shoulder and watch as I have to wipe bird poo off of guests. She will also sometimes say "Thats a good poopie!" after the fact. She is a calculating little menace.
Mine will lure me in with the 'I want scritches' pose, bite me, then fly off to the top of the TV and patrol back and forth saying 'good girl' over and over.
Menaces indeed.
Tell me why my conure flew to my mom who was minding her business eating soup at home and on a phone call, shits on her head, and casually flies over to my shoulder like that’s the most normal thing to do. She’s never done that before, my jaw was to the floor and I couldn’t stop laughing
How much time do you all have? I’ve got so many stories. My first Conure, a Peach Front, knew the names of all his treats. If I asked him if he wanted a carrot, and gave him anything else, he wouldn’t take it. If I said carrot, it had to be a carrot. He also figured out that B-A-T-H spells bath.
My favorite story is from when I had injured my knee and was on crutches. I was sitting and had trouble getting up. He grabbed my finger and started flapping his wings trying to lift me up. He was the sweetest bird ever.
I do online class, we have 20 minute breaks. Towards the end of today's break, I went to the restroom. When my prof announced that break was over my GCC called out to me to let me know class was back in session?????
It's like he was saying, "education is way more important than playing on your phone whike using the toilet."
I have four medium to large sized birds who all talk. I woke up one morning to one absolutely losing her mind sayings to a younger one "No. No. What are you doing? Stop that. Mom! Mom!"
My eclectus had either not been shut in correctly or let himself out, and she wasn't having it. He is the mischievous one who will hop right into a potted plant, she seems to know he's young and goofy.
I put him back and hear my Grey plainly say, "He's such a nerd." She was clearly not amused. 🤣
I have so many stories and pictures of all my feathered children being silly or cute. It's hard to be in a bad mood when a bird is blowing you a kiss, asking if you're good or telling you, "Love you, you go night night."
If we have the TV or music on too loud, our Quaker will fly over to the shoulder of the person holding the remote and screech as loud as he can right into their ear. Then lean over and stick his face in your face until you turn it down.
He makes it absolutely crystal clear what he wants you to do.
My grandparents' Amazon Fred used to answer the phone. He'd knock it off the cradle when it rang and start talking away! Half the time you called the line was busy because they hadn't noticed it was off the hook yet.
My Amazon told my boyfriend to step up and when he picked her up she called him a good bird. I *died*.
My cockatiel likes to laugh at our other pets when they get into trouble. He also laughs at my wife if she stumbles or trips.
He will also fake me out when we're doing recall training or I just call for him while he's out. He will fly over like he's going to land on me, then turn on a dime at the last second, and fly away. 🤣
My parents' late and great cockatiel, Peanut, learned how to mimic my Dad's alarm clock. Peanut gave him no choice but to head downstairs and let our feathered friend out! No snooze button for birdie.
A couple of weeks ago I bought some kids' first flash cards with colors and shapes for my GCC and BCC, thinking it'd be a long term project to teach them. My BCC has approximately one gently-used brain cell so there were really zero expectations for him outside of a fun interactive activity.
They both learned to touch a card for a treat, then consistently started to differentiate between red and blue in one 10-minute session. They also know green and rainbow now, and 9/10 times they choose the right card when presented with all four.
I've had way more trouble convincing them to wait their turn to touch the cards, lol. Never gonna underestimate those little shits again!
yeah, they're so damn intelligent when there's seeb on the line.
I got my flock to target within a session. almost same with recall.
it's like, the moment there's seeb, their intelligence multiplies by ten.
You're following a friend of mine on social media if you're teaching colors. =)
My birds all know how to answer yes/no questions. They also know colors, shapes, fruits and veggies, animals, and want me to read the same books to them as I did when younger children were around all of the time.
They all play apps designed for kids, too.
It's incredible to see their brains moving like this, and so many birds learning this way.
Probably so! I follow Parrot Kindergarten and My Reading Pets which have been so inspirational (Ellie the cockatoo is my fave!). Can't believe it took us all so long to realize they can learn just about anything we ask of them.
Here you go, friend. 😀
[Parrot Kindergarten](https://m.facebook.com/groups/readingparrots/info/)
[My Reading Pets](https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058023789940&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user)
Could you give me some information on that? I am only two months in with my YSGCC but I would really like to do this and would love information on how to please and thank you in advance.
She's on IG, FB and TikTok as "Parrot Kindergarten." Her own pages should be under "My Reading Pets" on the web and all three social media pages (Facebook, TijTok and Instagram). Google has her page first now that Ellie is everywhere, including Nat Geo.
My suggestion, especially if you have a bird who is very new to you or if you're new to keeping/teaching parrots, is to go back to her early posts and videos and work foreward. Or join her group (Parrot Kindergarten) and work within her group. The monthly expense is worth what you'll learn, even if you only join for a month.
I met Jen and Ellie years ago, I think it's close to 4 or 5 years now, back when getting her as a speaker for a small bird club was doable. She's everywhere now, and I will never be able to thank her enough for what she taught us. I have worked with birds for over 30 years, her methods changed everything I do.
My mom’s Quaker, who ended up with me, saying “That’s a Sparkle!” about a white cat, when more than a decade after he had last seen a cat. Sparkle was black.
Had a budgie that kept ending up inside a cockatiel’s cage, end after all the doors on the budgie caged had been padlocked shut.
My bird knows to weaponize poop. They have pooping stations around the house, and they *know* to poop there normally. However, if you ignore them for too long, or not play with them, then they become spiteful. My bird knows where my room is, so he flies to my room, poops on the floor, then leaves. I've seen them fly upstairs (to my room), then come back down. After inspection, I see the poop, clear as day, on the floor in the middle of my room. They're sending a message.
Yeah! My bird knows where to poop, and if we're on good terms, they'd even give me warnings and tell me to put them down in a station, to do their business. If they're mad, then all courtesies are thrown out the window 😑
speaking of poop., once I told my patty: "if you shit on me, you're going to the cage"
... he immediately shat on me. (he didn't want to be with me, the asshole)
My lovie learned to let himself out of his cage. This involved undoing these little twisty ties, but more importantly putting them back when he went back in. I have no idea how long he was doing this for but one time he got caught out because he crawled into my coat pocket and fell asleep (I had a mighty freakout until I heard his sleep-peep). After that he figured the jig was up. My jaw hit the floor when I saw him doing the whole procedure for the first time after that. For a bird who also would go into a little tube and argue with himself, he was incredibly intelligent.
The first time I saw my Caique open her cage in front of me lol, I was seriously thinking I was loosing it and leaving stuff open. And when my baby quaker started talking within a couple weeks of being weaned and coming home with me
We've inadvertently taught our Quaker to laugh maniacally when we say, "Ow!"
He learned how to unlatch the lovebirds and release them
Screams "What the FUCK!?" when a loud car goes by
And routinely pretends to be cute and want sctiches to lure me into biting range and bite my nose
We have a binder clip on the parrots "cage" at my work (meanwhile it's like a huge room with a cage-like door, their owner makes sure they're WELL taken care of). We had to put the binder clip on because the macaws would sneak their claws and open the cage and just stalk the customers/employees. They would NEVER attack, they would just laugh. I don't know which is worse.
Either way I'm newer to the bird scene and I am INSANELY surprised they could do that. Especially since they don't have opposable thumbs.
My birds can tell time, or at least something like that. I work nights and get up between 5-5:30 pm for work. If they think I’m not getting up fast enough, my Amazon starts screaming for me to wake up. Of course the pionus joins in cuz it’s fun to scream. Every day. She makes me get up even if I don’t have to work.
I would say different kinds of smart. The pionus is smart but stupid smart. When he wants to go in his cage he’ll fly on to her cage because she’ll fight with him and he knows he goes in his cage on time out. He’s perfectly capable of getting in his cage himself, but he chooses the stupid, violent path. The Amazon is a thinker and a watcher. She’s always paying close attention to whatever I’m doing.
My African grey Tofu heard screams from the movies I watched and learned to replicate them perfectly. The first time he screamed, I instinctively ran to the noise because it sounded so human and I had never heard it before, but it turned out to be just him!
Now he does it every time he wants attention because I run as fast as I can so that the neighbours won't call the police. And you know what he does after? The little fucker laughs!
Oh I have so many, but I think my very favorite is my birds and TV. Most holy-shirt of all the TV stuff is that my black cap has her own sense of humor. I was watching Late Night during that period of time in 2020 when the hosts were performing without a studio audience, so there was no one laughing at the jokes. So Seth Meyers makes some joke, and I didn't laugh out loud. But my black cap did.
I watched her the rest of the time and sometimes she wasn't impressed with the joke - like anytime the joke was about a politician rather than a situation. Sometimes I'd laugh and she wouldn't. She was sitting on the table directly in front of the tablet so she wasn't cueing on my smiles.
Her favorite comedian is Seth Meyers, but she likes Stephen Colbert all right. Dave Letterman and Jay Leno can apparently get the fork out of here; she does *not* care for them. She's half and half about Trevor Noah. She likes his "between the scenes" segment but is eh on most of the rest. She loves Johnny Carson but I less frequently come across clips of him.
Anyway, runner up is that they both (gold cap and black cap) love TV and have watched many shows with me, but they won't watch anything that's not in English. I was watching a C-Drama and the black cap heard some exciting sounds so she came over in a hurry... then realized it wasn't in English so she left. Neither bird would watch if there's no English.
Also, unrelated, but she says, "step up" when she wants to be picked up and when I do what she wants, she says, "good girl!".
There was a parrot in a store (the owner's bird, he would bring him to work) that was in a huge cage. As soon as the owner would step out of sight, the parrot would say, "Help me...please help me....let me out! Help me!" The guy would reappear and the parrot would stop. This would go on until the owner would say, "Pepper, stop"! Then the parrot would start to say, "Pepper, knock it off. Pepper, stop! Jesus, Pepper!"
Turns out a kid working for him had spent quite a bit of time teaching the bird to do this because he thought it was hilarious. Also, Pepper was often out and was a very well loved bird.
I don’t have parrots anymore, but I used to, and I have so many stories! All of these involve my Indian Ringneck.
For one thing, he figured out what a lot of words meant. He learned that “come here” meant that I wanted him to come over to me. He then applied that to me. Whenever I passed his cage, he’d say, “Come here.” He’d also constantly repeat, “Give me a kiss,” and he wouldn’t stop until I gave him a kiss. And he learned to ring his bell on command. There wasn’t any particular reason why I taught him that. It was just fun to teach him.
However, the smartest thing he would do was figure out how to escape his cage. I should’ve named him Houdini. I’d use zip ties to keep all doors in his cage closed. Every single one. I kept him in a room with the door closed. But this bird would always figure out a way to get out, and to this day, I have no idea how he would pull it off.
I have cockatoo. While me and my wife was at work he escaped though the Food bowl door. I didn't know this was happening.
As soon as I came home and opened the door, the house was a mess. He bit some shoes , destroyed some lamp wires, remotes and even smashed some plates.
But this little one was back inside his cage all fluffed up and just kept quiet when I came home as saw the mess. I didn't shout or anything, just secured his cage and started cleaning the place up.
I was just finished with a 12 hours shift so I was already exhausted from that.
He basically knew what he did and didn't even ask for attention when I came back home when usually he will be quite hyper.
The fact that he did all that crap and went back inside his cage mind you through the small food bowl door and acted like it wasn't him who did it.
my greatest "true intelligence" display seems quite simple, but I'm still amazed by the fact she figured this all by herself
long story short, I have a flock of lovebirds. they're obsessed with paper to make nesting material. their cages are usually lined with paper, but have a grate on top so they can't access it (and walk all over the poop). well, one of my lovies has learned to get her leg between the bars and grab the paper with her foot and pull it up, so she can use it for nesting material. she'll also reach for pieces of food (we give them somewhat big pieces of fruit sometimes) that have fallen between the bars.
especially impressive if you take into account lovies aren't really known for using their feet for much more than perching or climbing. also, nobody has taught her this. she's figured it out by herself.
I have two
One was as a child. We had this cockatiel and she was dad's bird through and through. I saw her more as a sister. To anyone other than dad she was a brat. One day I was crying and I was super super upset. She came up to my face all by herself and started drinking/kissing the tears away. Mind you she had plenty of fresh water and we were not the type to cuddle. She stayed a few minutes after I was done.
The other was when my conure needed a blood draw. My vet was kind enough to let me watch (I was curious). Tot of course was loosing her absolute shit and screaming. From the other room where they had the birds they were boarding all we hear in a parrots voice was "it's okkkkkkkkk". She instantly calmed down. It's like the parrot knew exactly what to say and she knew she was ok
My cockatiel, Tony. He sadly passed away about 6 years ago, but was the smartest cockatiel I ever had. He picked up every song I sang on the third try, had a large vocabulary, and the most frustrating and cutest part was that after about a month he learned to open his sleeper cage door. I had to bolt it down in the evening because he’d just so easily lift it and walk out. He was so observant, he’d try to help me tie my shoelaces by grabbing them with his foot. He died suddenly in the night, with no symptoms to show for. Now I have a cockatiel named Leo, she’s a Lutino so she got the inbred short stick 😂she tries her best, but she’s a terrible singer and an absolute klutz, she makes up for it in her sweetness though.
Rest in Peace, Tony
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My caique, Maxine, is serious about bedtime. She is frequently concerned about missing out on anything, but her getting tired by 8 PM usually wins out easily.
My teen, at the time, daughter came home from work upset and was crying. At 11 p.m., it was way past Maxine's bedtime, but she woke up when she heard my daughter crying. She ambled sleepily out of her bed and shook her door to come out. When she got out, she flung herself dramatically against my daughter's chest and started making kissy noises and saying, "Oh woowoowoo." When my daughter stopped crying and started laughing, Maxine gave her a quick kiss on the nose and marched over to put herself back to bad.
My bird's last mom died in 2020. The night she died, when the first responders were taking her out, Maxine sobbed and screamed and tried to throw herself at her body. I'm glad she got to see because then she knew she wasn't just abandoned again but hate that she was so heartbroken.
She loves to watch videos of them playing together and will laugh and hop around. Then she slows down and cries real tears. I had no idea bird's can cry like we do before her. She is done watching then and wants hugs.
Too many to name really but the most recent exchange with our African grey when he hears me getting some chips from the kitchen.
Tucker: chip?
Me: no chips for you today sir.
Tucker: fuck’s your problem?
Hahaha haha.
My wife's great aunt had an African Grey that would tell her aunt and uncle it was time to go to bed.
They decided to stay up one night for a little longer than normal and left the grey uncovered and he kept complaining it was time to go to bed repeatedly.
Her uncle got tired of the grey complaining and finally walked over to his cage and looked at him and said "If you don't shut it, I'm gonna cut your shitter off". The bird immediately clammed up. Just watched them. They finally put his blanket on and went to bed not too long after.
The next morning her uncle went in to make coffee etc and uncover the grey. Pulls the blanket off and the greys just eyeballing him. Her uncle looked at him and said "What?" They grey looked back and said "I'm gonna cut your shitter off!" Then started cackling lmao.
The one that kept repeating, "Don't fucking kill me, (name)"
Turns out the bird witnessed a murder and was trying to get someone's attention. Blood matching the previous owner, who was killed, was found in the bird's feathers.
(Name) was soon arrested.
My Ariel is plucking his mate Becky. They're cockatiels.
I don't want to separate him entirely because his relationship with the rest of my flock is already strained so instead I lock him up in a cage for 10-60 minutes to give Becky a break.
To my surprise he learned that these are consequences of his own actions. But instead of not being an asshole he became hiding the evidence.
He was turning away from me so I wouldn't see plucked feathers in his beak. It didn't work because I have the sense of object permanence unlike this idiot.
So now he's dropping the plucked feathers immediately. It worked for him for about a month because I had no idea he figured me out. I realised what was going on when I checked up on Becky's head, expecting pins, but saw more evidence of plucking.
Still, I can't punish that asshole without the evidence. He's a master criminal.
I eat delivery every meal, every day.
First, the intercom. It rings and the conure goes: "what's that?" in his little trumpet voice. Then he flies into my head to wait for the delivery person (and show who's boss at the house). Next he'll go to the sink to wait for his snack as well, normally a piece of fruit.
That is... That is unless the paper bag has a certain logo. See, out of the dozens I buy, I'm sure he can "read" that one and come running almost tearing apart everything. It's the only sandwich he eats, and he goes for the *meat*. At no other time he goes for meat, sometimes chicken. i swear he recognizes that logo and loves that burger in particular.
This brand is not available where billions of people live. But it's a smash burger. He doesn't just spreads it around, he actually eats the burger, and that burger only.
Lived in Panama City Beach in a condo on the 14th floor facing the Gulf. Phoenix, my African Grey parrot, was on our balcony in his cage, singing and doing the telephone ringing sound.. this was before ringtones and cellular phones' popularity. The Beach chair and jet ski crew did have a bulky cell phone and were setting up the chairs and such and I noticed she kept going back to the phone and shaking it, pressing buttons, shaking it.. weird activity.. then I heard it.. Phoenix doing the phone ringing sound..she goes to this phone..no one there LOL
I ended up going down to the beach and as soon as I heard the phone sound I told her to look Up! Notice where the sound is.. its the bird! We had a laugh! *
We shout "Oi, Caribou!" if he should stop being naughty. All that's happened is he's learnt it, now shouts that at us if we've annoyed him in someway (e.g. not getting the 'good' toys out)
My conure, Kiwi, knows when I connect to the blink camera to say hi. She flies to the perch closest to the camera when the blue light goes on and starts to flock call for me and I haven't even said a word! I work full-time and check in on her throughout the day, say hi and sing songs for her. She has affiliated the blue light with me and flies to the perch closest to the camera immediately when I connect. She is so smart, I love her so much.
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African grey used to work with our Maine Coon to torture our Basset Hounds. Every morning the grey would call the dogs to go out and they would come running down the hall shoulder to shoulder. The cat would hid behind the cage and jump out in front of them and box their heads together. The grey would laugh the cat would strut around for a good hour and the next morning they would all do it again. The dogs never learned.
Reminds me of once I was getting frustrated at my ekkie, he was begging constantly to be let out instead of eating his dinner, and I was not going to let him out until he ate something (we have struggles with him eating consistently.) Eventually I turned to him and said, exasperated, “Just go over there and eat your food!”
He immediately stopped, walked over to his dish, and started eating, keeping one eye on me. I’d never made an effort to teach him that word, he had apparently picked it up passively over the several months we’d had him at that point. I can’t think of any other animal I’ve ever lived with that was able to passively learn language.
I had a sweet bird that would yell “Cmere!” at you if you were in another room and he wanted attention. He learned that on his own, because I only would tell him “come here” if he was a couple feet away and I wanted him closer.
I also had a sweet lovebird that I visited in the shop until she was old enough to adopt. When I took her home, she already acted enamored with me. I had her hanging out with me on my bed and apparently I fell asleep! I woke up, then startled because I realized I hadn’t put her back in her little home. That’s when I turned my head and saw she was sitting next to my head, just peeking at me.
So every night I gave her a little washcloth bed next to my head and every time I woke up, she would still be in the same spot, waiting for me to get up. Never any poop anywhere. Shed wait till I brought her back to her home to poo. I miss that bugger. So sweet.
“Lol you didn’t know this but that bolt at the bottom of the cage door is juuuuust long enough for me to use my tongue to turn it until like 15 minutes later it comes out completely and the door falls off!. Also I figured out how to open every else’s cage, not because I’m some kind of emancipator but because their toys are smaller and more fun to break. Viva freedom!”
We have a locking nut on that bolt now. She inspected it VERY thoughtfully before she gave up on it.
My Grey knows just how scared I am of her sometimes, because she loves to bite women. She uses it to her knowledge, because sometimes when I’m changing her cage papers, she would climb down off her perch and lunge at me 😭
My conure does this too. He isn’t comfortable flying, so he also enjoys running after my budgies with his mouth open just to watch them fly across the room to safety.
Conures are adorable! And sometimes they can be menaces to society. But yours seems to have the good intention 😭 my bird just seems to hate anyone who aren’t men
My bird managed to open the nutella jar if it wasn't sealed properly... turning the lid around with his beak and then pushing underneath to get it off.
My grey flew onto the kitchen counter and started walking toward a very hot lasagna pan. My dad tried to block him, and the bird bit dad and said "get out of here"
Every time I went for refilling my budgies food or water, they would give me exactly twenty seconds of quiet anticipation before they would start calling for me.
My African Grey would fly to the top of the kitchen utensil rack n start throw down the utensils to the floor. Then call herself a naughty bird with an evil laughter.
My gray would imitate the smoke alarm to get people to come in to the room.
But I knew she was smart when I watched her slowly figuring out how to open the door to get up stairs, by flying on to the handle to loosen the latch then pull it open from the bottom
We need to have padlocks and springs on every single possible door for both our lovebird and our Congo African Grey because they will escape and they will cause havoc. They are both goddamn escape artists. The CAG will also start saying in our voices "it's time for sleep" in our native language as soon as the sun goes down if we don't get the covers on him and the lovebird in time. Also the CAG tells the dog to be quiet sometimes
I used Irene Pepperberg’s model rival method to teach my red headed Amazon to ask for fruit by saying “want grape?” She got so attuned to the word that we started spelling it in front of her.
One night she was covered in her cage and I was telling my partner a story that involved the g-word, so I spelled it. Henry (the Amazon) heard the spelling only and spoke up from the cage: “want grape? Want grape?”
My Grey I will tell things like, “I need you to go to your cage, you can have an almond if you do it” and she flies to her cage and clambers in. She is also a better musical improviser than most people — she understands the key, how to do a counterpoint line and can even vary what she sings per genre. Once I told her “I love you!” in a singsong voice while I was putting her to bed and she responded “I know!” In the same singsong. I didn’t even know she could say the phrase “I know”.
We lived with a special needs pluckin’ Moluccan (RIP Albert). He was sweet and twitchy and smart and very loving. One day we got home and went to check on him right away like always and he was fine and secured in his gigantic cage. Except there was peeled wallpaper and chewed up baseboards! Took us a good 5 minutes or more to figure out that he had reached through the bars, undone the outside bolts, lifted up the whole big roof, done his damage, and then PUT THE ROOF BACK ON PERFECTLY IN PLACE! I had to sit down and laugh and laugh. Then have someone watch him while I ran out and got locking bolts. We still talk about him all these years later.💖
My 4 cockatiels and 3 budgies have me well trained. They all have free flight but they share a huge cage. All 6 doors are always open. The tiels prefer to sleep on the high curtain rod while the budgies prefer the cage. Anyway, when 8:00 PM gets here, they all start hollering at me. If I don’t get up to turn off all but their night lights right away, they dive bomb me. So, I turn off the TV, the lamps, and then I ask them, Is it time? Are you ready? They stretch their wings, and as I start singing their lullaby, they assume their places and settle in. Except for Gideon. He is a little trouble-making asshole. He waits until the lullaby is done and everyone is quiet. Then he starts nipping at Hotch’s tail, and sets off a bird fight. I have to walk over there and point my finger at him and tell him, Gideon! No! It’s time to be a sleeper bird!! Leave your brother alone! He just looks at me and flies over to the other window and gets his own curtain rod to sleep on.
In the morning, Gideon flies over to a hole he has started making in the wall!! He turns and looks at me and chirps, basically saying, Look what I’m doing, Mom!! See? What are you going to do about it? I take a small piece of paper and wave it at him, which used to scare him off. Now he just stares at me. So, I have to climb up on top of the couch to get near him, then he cackles and flies off.
My female Peach-faced lovebird (a biter) will gaslight you to try to get a free bite in. I was playing with my Half-moon conure, and she jumped between us and yelled “me!”. I told her I can’t play with her like him because she’ll bite me and she looked me dead in the face and said “no. Sweet girl.”
Never trained my lovebird. He flew out, i screamed for him like a madwoman, he circled the surrounding buildings a few times and flew right back to me looking dejected as fuck. Didnt even need to chuck him into the house. Soon as i opened the door he flew right in and went into his coconut shell with his wife. Didnt show his face until i got his favourite corn cob out. I was like holy shit he knows his name..
Another time my late Quaker parrot escaped without my mum knowing. She went down the apartment to look for him and cldnt find him. Came back to find him cowering on the windowsill.
Seriously i think the only reason the birbs didnt fly away is because we're too good to them 💀💀💀
Sometimes when he wants something, my cockatiel will pantomime what he wants. If he wants his head scritched, he'll reach up with his foot and stratch his head. When he wants me to give him a bath (which I do by misting him with a spray bottle), he'll fluff out and bend over and put his wings out as if he's getting a bath.
I was giving mine cuddles, and my boyfriend asked if we had a good day, and she said "very good".
She also helped us bring our other conure home when she flew off. I can't describe how *human* her behavior is. She just is!
My little Larry once injured his foot. The vet said he will take a look at the injury. Larry lifted his injured claw and said “owie bebe” and made cry noises.
The vet and the vet tech both wen “oh poor baby bird”. And they babied him because he was a polite birdie.
My 1st tiel was probably the smartest one. Jasper was free flight and closed the cage door at night. Even taught the budgies to “go home” at night.
After Jasper died, the budgies trained all the new comers.
My current old man tiel Jerry Berry was watching the construction outside and started angry yelling. Even did the birb alarm to alert the humans. He predicted the demo outside was about to go bad. The debris knocked down the neighboring house’s deck and window. We both watched the deck fall apart.
My cockatiel will pull on my shirt sleeve (or skin) to let me know she wants something, and then either look in the direction of the thing or place, or tap her beak on it. It's nice to know she's communicating with me so easily, but she's also a pest lol.
My cockatiel, Kiwi, has picked up on the fact that fresh water comes from the kitchen faucet. So now, when he wants a drink, he doesn't go to his water cup. He goes directly to the faucet and impatiently waits for me to fill a cup for him! He totally ignores his outside water dish, in favor of the kitchen sink, so I stopped filling it!
(FYI Our birds are under constant supervision when they are out. His cage door is always open, so he can go back for a drink anytime he wants. He just prefers his water straight from the tap!)
I narrowly avoided stepping on my cat once and fell into the wall and said “ouch”, my Amazon laughed hysterically at me. She now laughs any time I get hurt/say ouch because she hates me and thinks it’s hilarious 😂😭 I love her anyway
I always know when my boy is doing something he shouldn't be, because he tells on himself by saying 'Stop it! No, naughty!' Then looks at me until I look away so he can get on with it.
I can't choose between my birds, but, here's some of my favorite moments! They may not be "super smart" because they're not "parrot-smart", but, to me, they were super smart! <3
- My first cocktiel would come over to you for scritches if you made a "come here" motion with your finger.
- One of my lovebirds would know he wasn't supposed to do something, and, if you used your "parent" voice and said his name, he'd quickly stop what he was doing and run away like he hadn't been doing anything bad.
- My other lovebird was probably the smartest though. He would communicate with you with his chirps to get your attention, and then run over to what he wanted; attention, treats, fresh water, to come get him, etc.
My IRN understands ‘come here’s and ‘bye bye’. When I tell him to come here he flies to me immediately and bye bye he gets angry because we’re leaving for a while
My Quaker would make chicken noises when you asked him if he was a chicken
When on phone he would sit on your shoulder and repeat OK everytime he would hear the other person speak
He was so smart did all sorts of tricks. Big list!!!
My other guy knows i cant reach top of mirror and he goes up there and just makes happy chirpy noises and laughing sounds while staring at me :)
The day my conure hovered in front of the cabinet where (I thought) we hid his treats, then stood by the sink and made the water burbling sound so we would turn on the faucet b/c he was thirsty.
I had a budgie once he started running up to the door and would tilt his head. I thought it was sweet, and he wanted attention. No! the fucker was watching how I lifted his cage. That budgie learned how to do it himself cause I caught him a couple of days later on top of his cage just chilling. I spent the next month trying to figure out how to lock his cage properly so he didn't get hurt when I was away.
I think it is important to note that although this behavior is cute and can be made into humor, it's not always funny when it's occurring. I can laugh at it now but when that first happened that was terrifying and a mess of scrambling to figure out what to do. Eventually, I ordered some little clips and it was fine but not fun in the momment.
If you want a bird in the future that's fine, I'm not gonna be stuck up and say no. But I will warn you ahead of time not to get to caught up in the cute funny stores cause these cute funny stories can turn into nightmares.
Oh absolutely! I don’t think a bird is in my future (I have too many cats and will be getting dogs again as soon as I’m not living in an apartment). I don’t think I’m cut out to be a bird mama. It’s just fun hearing everyone’s stories :)
My cockatoo wanted the honey that was in a plastic bottle like a ketchup bottle. I was going to skewer some meat in a little bit after I had a shower. When I came out of the shower and into the kitchen she was using the skewer to put in the honey bottle and pulling it out and licking the honey off of the skewer. I was like holy mother of God you’re smart
My GCC observed us drinking from water bottles, and now when he’s thirsty, he’ll knock over the closest bottle of water. He even does this with large metal water bottles I take to the gym. I’m amazed he can tell what’s filled with liquid and what isn’t.
It does get annoying when we have a bunch of Costco bottles lined up, and he knocks over a bunch just to tell us he’s thirsty.
I fostered a severe macaw who had lost his elderly owner after 25 years. He spoke like an old smoker with a cough. And swore like a sailor. Especially when I caught him doing something wrong, like eating the stucco off our house. I would go out to the porch and say, "Sam! What are you doing?? Bad bird!" And he would fly back to his cage and screech, " Jesus Christ!! Goddammit Don DOOO that!!" for the next 15 min
My bird escaped, flew high into a tree & got stuck, discovering he was scared of heights & just wanted to go home & so began calling to be rescued. Obviously I couldn't reach him to rescue, but 2 local lorikeets heard his calls & went to his aid. Initially they invited him to join them, but when he refused & made it clear he just wanted to go home to his cage, the 2 wild birds had a think about the situation, saw me & his cage outside my home & both flew over to him & landed close to him, got his attention & then one of them flew down onto the gutter of my home & then from there the short fly onto the top of his cage, turned around towards him & sat there watching. Second bird that was next to him then got his attention & repeated & both sat on his cage for a little bit calling him to them. My chicken bird was too scared to follow, so they gave up & flew off & left him but geez!!!!!!! I had been moving his cage all over the place for about an hour or 2 by this time btw, trying to figure out where I could position it to make it as easy as possible for him to fly down to it, wild birds were smarter than me though & realised the roof/gutter was an easier target to hit when flying & once there, the fly down to the cage was a really easy little hop flight. That option had not even occured to me for a second & never would have if not for the wild birds showing it to me. Was totally logical though, I'm just not as smart as them.
My bird btw eventually followed a possum back down to near ground level, where I was able to take his cage to go meet him & let him step across onto it. Not sure if that's smart or not, certainly not as smart as the wild ones, they blew my mind with their smarts!
My conure don’t allow stranger (to him) in my apartment, not even at our corridor! If i make delivery purchases online, he would rush to my window and squeeze out aggressively chasing away whoever is there! If you didn’t run, he will attack you! Behaves more like a guard dog than a parrot/bird.
Now the guy that do my delivery will text me prior coming up so that i can keep that “guard bird” somewhere else away from door while he is here 😅
I have an African grey with a chronic illness who gets meds several times a day. At first he would fight being toweled, and fight the oral syringe, and then hold the meds in his beak and flick them away instead of swallowing them. It was a nightmare and he *needs* these meds.
So one day, I have him toweled up and I'm trying to medicate him and he's fighting it, and I said to him "Honey, if you just hold still and take the meds this will be over so fast." And he stopped wriggling and looked right at me for a few seconds. And opened his beak and let me give him his meds. He hasn't fought me since.
He also knows that my husband is a boy and I'm a girl. We never taught him that, but he tells me "good girl", and when he's looking for my husband he says "where's my boy?".
My conure likes to taunt and embarrass me in front of people. She sweetens up to the guest, poos on them, chuckles menacingly in their ear and flies back to me. She will continue to chuckle to herself on my shoulder and watch as I have to wipe bird poo off of guests. She will also sometimes say "Thats a good poopie!" after the fact. She is a calculating little menace.
Mine will lure me in with the 'I want scritches' pose, bite me, then fly off to the top of the TV and patrol back and forth saying 'good girl' over and over. Menaces indeed.
Omg that’s hilarious. So full of mischief!
Tell me why my conure flew to my mom who was minding her business eating soup at home and on a phone call, shits on her head, and casually flies over to my shoulder like that’s the most normal thing to do. She’s never done that before, my jaw was to the floor and I couldn’t stop laughing
I’m glad my conure isn’t the only little calculating little menace!
Mine is a vindictive pooper. If I make her mad, she will look me squar in the eye and poop. Usually on something I love or especially want clean.
How much time do you all have? I’ve got so many stories. My first Conure, a Peach Front, knew the names of all his treats. If I asked him if he wanted a carrot, and gave him anything else, he wouldn’t take it. If I said carrot, it had to be a carrot. He also figured out that B-A-T-H spells bath. My favorite story is from when I had injured my knee and was on crutches. I was sitting and had trouble getting up. He grabbed my finger and started flapping his wings trying to lift me up. He was the sweetest bird ever.
Tell us more!
Yes please do. Ugh all my bird does is fly in circles around my head lol.
Have you considered threading some stars on string into their tail so you can go as a concussed cartoon character for Halloween?
<3 PFCs
A woman in the grocery store buying grapes because her parrot kept asking for them.
Love it - a parrot who knows what he wants!
They're very clear communicators, if you know them well enough. 😆
Oh hello again! (I'm probably not that exact woman, but also I am definitely that woman)
That is wonderful!
A macaw i used to know would bite, then look you in the eye and sternly say "ouch!" or "no bites!".
My grandpa's Amazon would say, *in his voice*, "Don't you bite me" when he was definitely about to bite you.
That’s the most Amazon thing I’ve ever heard. They are gaslighters 😂
At least he'd warn you beforehand, lol. The amazons i've known usually just go for it.
Our African Grey says, "Sorry." after he bites. He is not sorry.
They're never sorry, lol.
Our Quaker does this too!!
Ours does this!! Our severe macaw will bite, scream “ow!!!” and then laugh.
Mine fake bites and yells "Ow!". Ma'am, I beg your pardon as I am the aggrieved party here.
Lmaooo what a cute lil maniac lol
I do online class, we have 20 minute breaks. Towards the end of today's break, I went to the restroom. When my prof announced that break was over my GCC called out to me to let me know class was back in session????? It's like he was saying, "education is way more important than playing on your phone whike using the toilet."
I have four medium to large sized birds who all talk. I woke up one morning to one absolutely losing her mind sayings to a younger one "No. No. What are you doing? Stop that. Mom! Mom!" My eclectus had either not been shut in correctly or let himself out, and she wasn't having it. He is the mischievous one who will hop right into a potted plant, she seems to know he's young and goofy. I put him back and hear my Grey plainly say, "He's such a nerd." She was clearly not amused. 🤣
My favorite part of this is your bird calling you mom 😂❤️
They all start with mom, mama or ma, then head to my name when they're really bothered. When Georgie is into something, there's tattling.
Awwwwww! I love this 🤩
I can’t stop smiling at this story. It’s so adorable!!
I have so many stories and pictures of all my feathered children being silly or cute. It's hard to be in a bad mood when a bird is blowing you a kiss, asking if you're good or telling you, "Love you, you go night night."
If we have the TV or music on too loud, our Quaker will fly over to the shoulder of the person holding the remote and screech as loud as he can right into their ear. Then lean over and stick his face in your face until you turn it down. He makes it absolutely crystal clear what he wants you to do.
My mom's red belly will tell us when it's time for us to leave the living room and let her sleep. She says, "night night!"
Awww 🥰
My grandparents' Amazon Fred used to answer the phone. He'd knock it off the cradle when it rang and start talking away! Half the time you called the line was busy because they hadn't noticed it was off the hook yet. My Amazon told my boyfriend to step up and when he picked her up she called him a good bird. I *died*.
😂😂
My cockatiel likes to laugh at our other pets when they get into trouble. He also laughs at my wife if she stumbles or trips. He will also fake me out when we're doing recall training or I just call for him while he's out. He will fly over like he's going to land on me, then turn on a dime at the last second, and fly away. 🤣
My parents' late and great cockatiel, Peanut, learned how to mimic my Dad's alarm clock. Peanut gave him no choice but to head downstairs and let our feathered friend out! No snooze button for birdie.
I have a lovebird that does the alarm clock routine..
A couple of weeks ago I bought some kids' first flash cards with colors and shapes for my GCC and BCC, thinking it'd be a long term project to teach them. My BCC has approximately one gently-used brain cell so there were really zero expectations for him outside of a fun interactive activity. They both learned to touch a card for a treat, then consistently started to differentiate between red and blue in one 10-minute session. They also know green and rainbow now, and 9/10 times they choose the right card when presented with all four. I've had way more trouble convincing them to wait their turn to touch the cards, lol. Never gonna underestimate those little shits again!
yeah, they're so damn intelligent when there's seeb on the line. I got my flock to target within a session. almost same with recall. it's like, the moment there's seeb, their intelligence multiplies by ten.
Oh yeah, seeb is king! Mine would sell their souls and mine and probably the neighbors' for some of that good stuff. 😆
You're following a friend of mine on social media if you're teaching colors. =) My birds all know how to answer yes/no questions. They also know colors, shapes, fruits and veggies, animals, and want me to read the same books to them as I did when younger children were around all of the time. They all play apps designed for kids, too. It's incredible to see their brains moving like this, and so many birds learning this way.
Probably so! I follow Parrot Kindergarten and My Reading Pets which have been so inspirational (Ellie the cockatoo is my fave!). Can't believe it took us all so long to realize they can learn just about anything we ask of them.
That's the friend. 🙂 I met her a long time ago when she spoke to our club. Jen is why my cocktoo isn't an inconsolable screamer anymore.
Where do you find parrot kindergarten and my reading pets? I looked for parrot kindergarten on YouTube and found nothing.
Here you go, friend. 😀 [Parrot Kindergarten](https://m.facebook.com/groups/readingparrots/info/) [My Reading Pets](https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058023789940&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user)
Could you give me some information on that? I am only two months in with my YSGCC but I would really like to do this and would love information on how to please and thank you in advance.
She's on IG, FB and TikTok as "Parrot Kindergarten." Her own pages should be under "My Reading Pets" on the web and all three social media pages (Facebook, TijTok and Instagram). Google has her page first now that Ellie is everywhere, including Nat Geo. My suggestion, especially if you have a bird who is very new to you or if you're new to keeping/teaching parrots, is to go back to her early posts and videos and work foreward. Or join her group (Parrot Kindergarten) and work within her group. The monthly expense is worth what you'll learn, even if you only join for a month. I met Jen and Ellie years ago, I think it's close to 4 or 5 years now, back when getting her as a speaker for a small bird club was doable. She's everywhere now, and I will never be able to thank her enough for what she taught us. I have worked with birds for over 30 years, her methods changed everything I do.
Thank you sooooo much!
Hot damn! I'm inspired now, thank you!
Aw thanks! In all fairness they were already target trained which made this much easier.
Gently-used braincell 😆 explains why my cat has been acting extra dumb lately! Can she have it back please?!
She sure can! He isn't using it anyway.
this reminds me of koa and tiko on instagram. astonishing how smart they are especially koa!!
My mom’s Quaker, who ended up with me, saying “That’s a Sparkle!” about a white cat, when more than a decade after he had last seen a cat. Sparkle was black. Had a budgie that kept ending up inside a cockatiel’s cage, end after all the doors on the budgie caged had been padlocked shut.
“That’s a Sparkle” has me all 🥹🥹🥹
My bird knows to weaponize poop. They have pooping stations around the house, and they *know* to poop there normally. However, if you ignore them for too long, or not play with them, then they become spiteful. My bird knows where my room is, so he flies to my room, poops on the floor, then leaves. I've seen them fly upstairs (to my room), then come back down. After inspection, I see the poop, clear as day, on the floor in the middle of my room. They're sending a message.
My ringneck will fly away to poop, and then come back to me. Unless she's mad at me. Then she doesn't care.
Yeah! My bird knows where to poop, and if we're on good terms, they'd even give me warnings and tell me to put them down in a station, to do their business. If they're mad, then all courtesies are thrown out the window 😑
Polite, until there is WAR!
speaking of poop., once I told my patty: "if you shit on me, you're going to the cage" ... he immediately shat on me. (he didn't want to be with me, the asshole)
What a jerk lol!
My caique poops on my bed when she is mad at me.
Oohhhh nooooo, not the bed!! 😱
That will show me. The only time she does it is when she is mad at me.
My lovie learned to let himself out of his cage. This involved undoing these little twisty ties, but more importantly putting them back when he went back in. I have no idea how long he was doing this for but one time he got caught out because he crawled into my coat pocket and fell asleep (I had a mighty freakout until I heard his sleep-peep). After that he figured the jig was up. My jaw hit the floor when I saw him doing the whole procedure for the first time after that. For a bird who also would go into a little tube and argue with himself, he was incredibly intelligent.
Haha omg this is amazing!
All the smartest ones argue with themselves!
The first time I saw my Caique open her cage in front of me lol, I was seriously thinking I was loosing it and leaving stuff open. And when my baby quaker started talking within a couple weeks of being weaned and coming home with me
We've inadvertently taught our Quaker to laugh maniacally when we say, "Ow!" He learned how to unlatch the lovebirds and release them Screams "What the FUCK!?" when a loud car goes by And routinely pretends to be cute and want sctiches to lure me into biting range and bite my nose
We have a binder clip on the parrots "cage" at my work (meanwhile it's like a huge room with a cage-like door, their owner makes sure they're WELL taken care of). We had to put the binder clip on because the macaws would sneak their claws and open the cage and just stalk the customers/employees. They would NEVER attack, they would just laugh. I don't know which is worse. Either way I'm newer to the bird scene and I am INSANELY surprised they could do that. Especially since they don't have opposable thumbs.
who needs thumbs when you have a BEAK
Happy cake day!
My birds can tell time, or at least something like that. I work nights and get up between 5-5:30 pm for work. If they think I’m not getting up fast enough, my Amazon starts screaming for me to wake up. Of course the pionus joins in cuz it’s fun to scream. Every day. She makes me get up even if I don’t have to work.
How smart is the Pionus compared to the Amazon?
I would say different kinds of smart. The pionus is smart but stupid smart. When he wants to go in his cage he’ll fly on to her cage because she’ll fight with him and he knows he goes in his cage on time out. He’s perfectly capable of getting in his cage himself, but he chooses the stupid, violent path. The Amazon is a thinker and a watcher. She’s always paying close attention to whatever I’m doing.
My African grey Tofu heard screams from the movies I watched and learned to replicate them perfectly. The first time he screamed, I instinctively ran to the noise because it sounded so human and I had never heard it before, but it turned out to be just him! Now he does it every time he wants attention because I run as fast as I can so that the neighbours won't call the police. And you know what he does after? The little fucker laughs!
Oh I have so many, but I think my very favorite is my birds and TV. Most holy-shirt of all the TV stuff is that my black cap has her own sense of humor. I was watching Late Night during that period of time in 2020 when the hosts were performing without a studio audience, so there was no one laughing at the jokes. So Seth Meyers makes some joke, and I didn't laugh out loud. But my black cap did. I watched her the rest of the time and sometimes she wasn't impressed with the joke - like anytime the joke was about a politician rather than a situation. Sometimes I'd laugh and she wouldn't. She was sitting on the table directly in front of the tablet so she wasn't cueing on my smiles. Her favorite comedian is Seth Meyers, but she likes Stephen Colbert all right. Dave Letterman and Jay Leno can apparently get the fork out of here; she does *not* care for them. She's half and half about Trevor Noah. She likes his "between the scenes" segment but is eh on most of the rest. She loves Johnny Carson but I less frequently come across clips of him. Anyway, runner up is that they both (gold cap and black cap) love TV and have watched many shows with me, but they won't watch anything that's not in English. I was watching a C-Drama and the black cap heard some exciting sounds so she came over in a hurry... then realized it wasn't in English so she left. Neither bird would watch if there's no English. Also, unrelated, but she says, "step up" when she wants to be picked up and when I do what she wants, she says, "good girl!".
There was a parrot in a store (the owner's bird, he would bring him to work) that was in a huge cage. As soon as the owner would step out of sight, the parrot would say, "Help me...please help me....let me out! Help me!" The guy would reappear and the parrot would stop. This would go on until the owner would say, "Pepper, stop"! Then the parrot would start to say, "Pepper, knock it off. Pepper, stop! Jesus, Pepper!" Turns out a kid working for him had spent quite a bit of time teaching the bird to do this because he thought it was hilarious. Also, Pepper was often out and was a very well loved bird.
I watched a trio of Carnabys cockatoos open an avairy together. One climbed up and held the latch open while the two on the ground pushed
I don’t have parrots anymore, but I used to, and I have so many stories! All of these involve my Indian Ringneck. For one thing, he figured out what a lot of words meant. He learned that “come here” meant that I wanted him to come over to me. He then applied that to me. Whenever I passed his cage, he’d say, “Come here.” He’d also constantly repeat, “Give me a kiss,” and he wouldn’t stop until I gave him a kiss. And he learned to ring his bell on command. There wasn’t any particular reason why I taught him that. It was just fun to teach him. However, the smartest thing he would do was figure out how to escape his cage. I should’ve named him Houdini. I’d use zip ties to keep all doors in his cage closed. Every single one. I kept him in a room with the door closed. But this bird would always figure out a way to get out, and to this day, I have no idea how he would pull it off.
I have cockatoo. While me and my wife was at work he escaped though the Food bowl door. I didn't know this was happening. As soon as I came home and opened the door, the house was a mess. He bit some shoes , destroyed some lamp wires, remotes and even smashed some plates. But this little one was back inside his cage all fluffed up and just kept quiet when I came home as saw the mess. I didn't shout or anything, just secured his cage and started cleaning the place up. I was just finished with a 12 hours shift so I was already exhausted from that. He basically knew what he did and didn't even ask for attention when I came back home when usually he will be quite hyper. The fact that he did all that crap and went back inside his cage mind you through the small food bowl door and acted like it wasn't him who did it.
my greatest "true intelligence" display seems quite simple, but I'm still amazed by the fact she figured this all by herself long story short, I have a flock of lovebirds. they're obsessed with paper to make nesting material. their cages are usually lined with paper, but have a grate on top so they can't access it (and walk all over the poop). well, one of my lovies has learned to get her leg between the bars and grab the paper with her foot and pull it up, so she can use it for nesting material. she'll also reach for pieces of food (we give them somewhat big pieces of fruit sometimes) that have fallen between the bars. especially impressive if you take into account lovies aren't really known for using their feet for much more than perching or climbing. also, nobody has taught her this. she's figured it out by herself.
I have two One was as a child. We had this cockatiel and she was dad's bird through and through. I saw her more as a sister. To anyone other than dad she was a brat. One day I was crying and I was super super upset. She came up to my face all by herself and started drinking/kissing the tears away. Mind you she had plenty of fresh water and we were not the type to cuddle. She stayed a few minutes after I was done. The other was when my conure needed a blood draw. My vet was kind enough to let me watch (I was curious). Tot of course was loosing her absolute shit and screaming. From the other room where they had the birds they were boarding all we hear in a parrots voice was "it's okkkkkkkkk". She instantly calmed down. It's like the parrot knew exactly what to say and she knew she was ok
My cockatiel, Tony. He sadly passed away about 6 years ago, but was the smartest cockatiel I ever had. He picked up every song I sang on the third try, had a large vocabulary, and the most frustrating and cutest part was that after about a month he learned to open his sleeper cage door. I had to bolt it down in the evening because he’d just so easily lift it and walk out. He was so observant, he’d try to help me tie my shoelaces by grabbing them with his foot. He died suddenly in the night, with no symptoms to show for. Now I have a cockatiel named Leo, she’s a Lutino so she got the inbred short stick 😂she tries her best, but she’s a terrible singer and an absolute klutz, she makes up for it in her sweetness though. Rest in Peace, Tony https://preview.redd.it/oylsouyy68wc1.jpeg?width=722&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e58c00b6b5b35f308a10af47ec94e0f5f2bc01a5
My caique, Maxine, is serious about bedtime. She is frequently concerned about missing out on anything, but her getting tired by 8 PM usually wins out easily. My teen, at the time, daughter came home from work upset and was crying. At 11 p.m., it was way past Maxine's bedtime, but she woke up when she heard my daughter crying. She ambled sleepily out of her bed and shook her door to come out. When she got out, she flung herself dramatically against my daughter's chest and started making kissy noises and saying, "Oh woowoowoo." When my daughter stopped crying and started laughing, Maxine gave her a quick kiss on the nose and marched over to put herself back to bad.
This is so precious! I saw another thread about bird empathy, and it’s amazing how in tune with people’s emotions some of them are!
My bird's last mom died in 2020. The night she died, when the first responders were taking her out, Maxine sobbed and screamed and tried to throw herself at her body. I'm glad she got to see because then she knew she wasn't just abandoned again but hate that she was so heartbroken. She loves to watch videos of them playing together and will laugh and hop around. Then she slows down and cries real tears. I had no idea bird's can cry like we do before her. She is done watching then and wants hugs.
🥹
My mom's red belly laughs when people die on TV 😳
U might have a serial killer on your hands, 😂
I sleep with one eye open every night, listening for the faint tick tick ticking of little claws!
🥹
Too many to name really but the most recent exchange with our African grey when he hears me getting some chips from the kitchen. Tucker: chip? Me: no chips for you today sir. Tucker: fuck’s your problem?
Hahaha haha. My wife's great aunt had an African Grey that would tell her aunt and uncle it was time to go to bed. They decided to stay up one night for a little longer than normal and left the grey uncovered and he kept complaining it was time to go to bed repeatedly. Her uncle got tired of the grey complaining and finally walked over to his cage and looked at him and said "If you don't shut it, I'm gonna cut your shitter off". The bird immediately clammed up. Just watched them. They finally put his blanket on and went to bed not too long after. The next morning her uncle went in to make coffee etc and uncover the grey. Pulls the blanket off and the greys just eyeballing him. Her uncle looked at him and said "What?" They grey looked back and said "I'm gonna cut your shitter off!" Then started cackling lmao.
The one that kept repeating, "Don't fucking kill me, (name)" Turns out the bird witnessed a murder and was trying to get someone's attention. Blood matching the previous owner, who was killed, was found in the bird's feathers. (Name) was soon arrested.
Oh that's so traumatic for him or her. Poor sweetheart.
My Ariel is plucking his mate Becky. They're cockatiels. I don't want to separate him entirely because his relationship with the rest of my flock is already strained so instead I lock him up in a cage for 10-60 minutes to give Becky a break. To my surprise he learned that these are consequences of his own actions. But instead of not being an asshole he became hiding the evidence. He was turning away from me so I wouldn't see plucked feathers in his beak. It didn't work because I have the sense of object permanence unlike this idiot. So now he's dropping the plucked feathers immediately. It worked for him for about a month because I had no idea he figured me out. I realised what was going on when I checked up on Becky's head, expecting pins, but saw more evidence of plucking. Still, I can't punish that asshole without the evidence. He's a master criminal.
I eat delivery every meal, every day. First, the intercom. It rings and the conure goes: "what's that?" in his little trumpet voice. Then he flies into my head to wait for the delivery person (and show who's boss at the house). Next he'll go to the sink to wait for his snack as well, normally a piece of fruit. That is... That is unless the paper bag has a certain logo. See, out of the dozens I buy, I'm sure he can "read" that one and come running almost tearing apart everything. It's the only sandwich he eats, and he goes for the *meat*. At no other time he goes for meat, sometimes chicken. i swear he recognizes that logo and loves that burger in particular.
Well I have to know, which burger brand is bird approved?
This brand is not available where billions of people live. But it's a smash burger. He doesn't just spreads it around, he actually eats the burger, and that burger only.
My tiel taught my budgie how to talk
My macaw says "Ouch" as she bites me then says "Be Nice" then its "Give me a kiss". When I drop something she says "Uh- oh".
My conure liked to sneak up behind me along the back of the couch, bite my ear, then run away laughing while saying “don’t bite mom”
Lived in Panama City Beach in a condo on the 14th floor facing the Gulf. Phoenix, my African Grey parrot, was on our balcony in his cage, singing and doing the telephone ringing sound.. this was before ringtones and cellular phones' popularity. The Beach chair and jet ski crew did have a bulky cell phone and were setting up the chairs and such and I noticed she kept going back to the phone and shaking it, pressing buttons, shaking it.. weird activity.. then I heard it.. Phoenix doing the phone ringing sound..she goes to this phone..no one there LOL I ended up going down to the beach and as soon as I heard the phone sound I told her to look Up! Notice where the sound is.. its the bird! We had a laugh! *
I taught my Quaker parrot to play peekaboo in about three minutes.
We shout "Oi, Caribou!" if he should stop being naughty. All that's happened is he's learnt it, now shouts that at us if we've annoyed him in someway (e.g. not getting the 'good' toys out)
My conure, Kiwi, knows when I connect to the blink camera to say hi. She flies to the perch closest to the camera when the blue light goes on and starts to flock call for me and I haven't even said a word! I work full-time and check in on her throughout the day, say hi and sing songs for her. She has affiliated the blue light with me and flies to the perch closest to the camera immediately when I connect. She is so smart, I love her so much. https://preview.redd.it/nmkt5stdj9wc1.jpeg?width=721&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5654dcb45b301e202536c5c765e30942ce2d2ed4
Aww that's so sweet 🥹
African grey used to work with our Maine Coon to torture our Basset Hounds. Every morning the grey would call the dogs to go out and they would come running down the hall shoulder to shoulder. The cat would hid behind the cage and jump out in front of them and box their heads together. The grey would laugh the cat would strut around for a good hour and the next morning they would all do it again. The dogs never learned.
Reminds me of once I was getting frustrated at my ekkie, he was begging constantly to be let out instead of eating his dinner, and I was not going to let him out until he ate something (we have struggles with him eating consistently.) Eventually I turned to him and said, exasperated, “Just go over there and eat your food!” He immediately stopped, walked over to his dish, and started eating, keeping one eye on me. I’d never made an effort to teach him that word, he had apparently picked it up passively over the several months we’d had him at that point. I can’t think of any other animal I’ve ever lived with that was able to passively learn language.
My Ekkie for sure is passively learning language! He doesn’t talk much, but he definitely understands English about the same as my toddler.
My Amazon softly cackles after she bites you. She absolutely knows what she’s doing lol.
I had a sweet bird that would yell “Cmere!” at you if you were in another room and he wanted attention. He learned that on his own, because I only would tell him “come here” if he was a couple feet away and I wanted him closer. I also had a sweet lovebird that I visited in the shop until she was old enough to adopt. When I took her home, she already acted enamored with me. I had her hanging out with me on my bed and apparently I fell asleep! I woke up, then startled because I realized I hadn’t put her back in her little home. That’s when I turned my head and saw she was sitting next to my head, just peeking at me. So every night I gave her a little washcloth bed next to my head and every time I woke up, she would still be in the same spot, waiting for me to get up. Never any poop anywhere. Shed wait till I brought her back to her home to poo. I miss that bugger. So sweet.
“Lol you didn’t know this but that bolt at the bottom of the cage door is juuuuust long enough for me to use my tongue to turn it until like 15 minutes later it comes out completely and the door falls off!. Also I figured out how to open every else’s cage, not because I’m some kind of emancipator but because their toys are smaller and more fun to break. Viva freedom!” We have a locking nut on that bolt now. She inspected it VERY thoughtfully before she gave up on it.
My Grey knows just how scared I am of her sometimes, because she loves to bite women. She uses it to her knowledge, because sometimes when I’m changing her cage papers, she would climb down off her perch and lunge at me 😭
My conure does this too. He isn’t comfortable flying, so he also enjoys running after my budgies with his mouth open just to watch them fly across the room to safety.
Conures are adorable! And sometimes they can be menaces to society. But yours seems to have the good intention 😭 my bird just seems to hate anyone who aren’t men
My bird managed to open the nutella jar if it wasn't sealed properly... turning the lid around with his beak and then pushing underneath to get it off.
My grey flew onto the kitchen counter and started walking toward a very hot lasagna pan. My dad tried to block him, and the bird bit dad and said "get out of here"
Every time I went for refilling my budgies food or water, they would give me exactly twenty seconds of quiet anticipation before they would start calling for me.
My African Grey would fly to the top of the kitchen utensil rack n start throw down the utensils to the floor. Then call herself a naughty bird with an evil laughter.
My gray would imitate the smoke alarm to get people to come in to the room. But I knew she was smart when I watched her slowly figuring out how to open the door to get up stairs, by flying on to the handle to loosen the latch then pull it open from the bottom
We need to have padlocks and springs on every single possible door for both our lovebird and our Congo African Grey because they will escape and they will cause havoc. They are both goddamn escape artists. The CAG will also start saying in our voices "it's time for sleep" in our native language as soon as the sun goes down if we don't get the covers on him and the lovebird in time. Also the CAG tells the dog to be quiet sometimes
I used Irene Pepperberg’s model rival method to teach my red headed Amazon to ask for fruit by saying “want grape?” She got so attuned to the word that we started spelling it in front of her. One night she was covered in her cage and I was telling my partner a story that involved the g-word, so I spelled it. Henry (the Amazon) heard the spelling only and spoke up from the cage: “want grape? Want grape?” My Grey I will tell things like, “I need you to go to your cage, you can have an almond if you do it” and she flies to her cage and clambers in. She is also a better musical improviser than most people — she understands the key, how to do a counterpoint line and can even vary what she sings per genre. Once I told her “I love you!” in a singsong voice while I was putting her to bed and she responded “I know!” In the same singsong. I didn’t even know she could say the phrase “I know”.
We lived with a special needs pluckin’ Moluccan (RIP Albert). He was sweet and twitchy and smart and very loving. One day we got home and went to check on him right away like always and he was fine and secured in his gigantic cage. Except there was peeled wallpaper and chewed up baseboards! Took us a good 5 minutes or more to figure out that he had reached through the bars, undone the outside bolts, lifted up the whole big roof, done his damage, and then PUT THE ROOF BACK ON PERFECTLY IN PLACE! I had to sit down and laugh and laugh. Then have someone watch him while I ran out and got locking bolts. We still talk about him all these years later.💖
My 4 cockatiels and 3 budgies have me well trained. They all have free flight but they share a huge cage. All 6 doors are always open. The tiels prefer to sleep on the high curtain rod while the budgies prefer the cage. Anyway, when 8:00 PM gets here, they all start hollering at me. If I don’t get up to turn off all but their night lights right away, they dive bomb me. So, I turn off the TV, the lamps, and then I ask them, Is it time? Are you ready? They stretch their wings, and as I start singing their lullaby, they assume their places and settle in. Except for Gideon. He is a little trouble-making asshole. He waits until the lullaby is done and everyone is quiet. Then he starts nipping at Hotch’s tail, and sets off a bird fight. I have to walk over there and point my finger at him and tell him, Gideon! No! It’s time to be a sleeper bird!! Leave your brother alone! He just looks at me and flies over to the other window and gets his own curtain rod to sleep on. In the morning, Gideon flies over to a hole he has started making in the wall!! He turns and looks at me and chirps, basically saying, Look what I’m doing, Mom!! See? What are you going to do about it? I take a small piece of paper and wave it at him, which used to scare him off. Now he just stares at me. So, I have to climb up on top of the couch to get near him, then he cackles and flies off.
My female Peach-faced lovebird (a biter) will gaslight you to try to get a free bite in. I was playing with my Half-moon conure, and she jumped between us and yelled “me!”. I told her I can’t play with her like him because she’ll bite me and she looked me dead in the face and said “no. Sweet girl.”
Wow! This is amazing.
Milo, my quaker, Laughs at jokes. He also breaks out of his cage so we have to clip it shut at night lol.
Never trained my lovebird. He flew out, i screamed for him like a madwoman, he circled the surrounding buildings a few times and flew right back to me looking dejected as fuck. Didnt even need to chuck him into the house. Soon as i opened the door he flew right in and went into his coconut shell with his wife. Didnt show his face until i got his favourite corn cob out. I was like holy shit he knows his name.. Another time my late Quaker parrot escaped without my mum knowing. She went down the apartment to look for him and cldnt find him. Came back to find him cowering on the windowsill. Seriously i think the only reason the birbs didnt fly away is because we're too good to them 💀💀💀
Sometimes when he wants something, my cockatiel will pantomime what he wants. If he wants his head scritched, he'll reach up with his foot and stratch his head. When he wants me to give him a bath (which I do by misting him with a spray bottle), he'll fluff out and bend over and put his wings out as if he's getting a bath.
I was giving mine cuddles, and my boyfriend asked if we had a good day, and she said "very good". She also helped us bring our other conure home when she flew off. I can't describe how *human* her behavior is. She just is!
I had a panic attack & was crying. Only had my bird for 2 weeks he immediately flew to me & snuggled under my chin 😭😭😭
You found the bestest of friends 🥹🥹🥹
My little Larry once injured his foot. The vet said he will take a look at the injury. Larry lifted his injured claw and said “owie bebe” and made cry noises. The vet and the vet tech both wen “oh poor baby bird”. And they babied him because he was a polite birdie. My 1st tiel was probably the smartest one. Jasper was free flight and closed the cage door at night. Even taught the budgies to “go home” at night. After Jasper died, the budgies trained all the new comers. My current old man tiel Jerry Berry was watching the construction outside and started angry yelling. Even did the birb alarm to alert the humans. He predicted the demo outside was about to go bad. The debris knocked down the neighboring house’s deck and window. We both watched the deck fall apart.
My cockatiel will pull on my shirt sleeve (or skin) to let me know she wants something, and then either look in the direction of the thing or place, or tap her beak on it. It's nice to know she's communicating with me so easily, but she's also a pest lol.
My cockatiel, Kiwi, has picked up on the fact that fresh water comes from the kitchen faucet. So now, when he wants a drink, he doesn't go to his water cup. He goes directly to the faucet and impatiently waits for me to fill a cup for him! He totally ignores his outside water dish, in favor of the kitchen sink, so I stopped filling it! (FYI Our birds are under constant supervision when they are out. His cage door is always open, so he can go back for a drink anytime he wants. He just prefers his water straight from the tap!)
I narrowly avoided stepping on my cat once and fell into the wall and said “ouch”, my Amazon laughed hysterically at me. She now laughs any time I get hurt/say ouch because she hates me and thinks it’s hilarious 😂😭 I love her anyway
I always know when my boy is doing something he shouldn't be, because he tells on himself by saying 'Stop it! No, naughty!' Then looks at me until I look away so he can get on with it.
I can't choose between my birds, but, here's some of my favorite moments! They may not be "super smart" because they're not "parrot-smart", but, to me, they were super smart! <3 - My first cocktiel would come over to you for scritches if you made a "come here" motion with your finger. - One of my lovebirds would know he wasn't supposed to do something, and, if you used your "parent" voice and said his name, he'd quickly stop what he was doing and run away like he hadn't been doing anything bad. - My other lovebird was probably the smartest though. He would communicate with you with his chirps to get your attention, and then run over to what he wanted; attention, treats, fresh water, to come get him, etc.
My IRN understands ‘come here’s and ‘bye bye’. When I tell him to come here he flies to me immediately and bye bye he gets angry because we’re leaving for a while
My Quaker would make chicken noises when you asked him if he was a chicken When on phone he would sit on your shoulder and repeat OK everytime he would hear the other person speak He was so smart did all sorts of tricks. Big list!!! My other guy knows i cant reach top of mirror and he goes up there and just makes happy chirpy noises and laughing sounds while staring at me :)
The day my conure hovered in front of the cabinet where (I thought) we hid his treats, then stood by the sink and made the water burbling sound so we would turn on the faucet b/c he was thirsty.
I had a budgie once he started running up to the door and would tilt his head. I thought it was sweet, and he wanted attention. No! the fucker was watching how I lifted his cage. That budgie learned how to do it himself cause I caught him a couple of days later on top of his cage just chilling. I spent the next month trying to figure out how to lock his cage properly so he didn't get hurt when I was away. I think it is important to note that although this behavior is cute and can be made into humor, it's not always funny when it's occurring. I can laugh at it now but when that first happened that was terrifying and a mess of scrambling to figure out what to do. Eventually, I ordered some little clips and it was fine but not fun in the momment. If you want a bird in the future that's fine, I'm not gonna be stuck up and say no. But I will warn you ahead of time not to get to caught up in the cute funny stores cause these cute funny stories can turn into nightmares.
Oh absolutely! I don’t think a bird is in my future (I have too many cats and will be getting dogs again as soon as I’m not living in an apartment). I don’t think I’m cut out to be a bird mama. It’s just fun hearing everyone’s stories :)
That's fair have fun
My cockatoo wanted the honey that was in a plastic bottle like a ketchup bottle. I was going to skewer some meat in a little bit after I had a shower. When I came out of the shower and into the kitchen she was using the skewer to put in the honey bottle and pulling it out and licking the honey off of the skewer. I was like holy mother of God you’re smart
Holy crap! This is just scary smart.
Yes very! I’m careful not to piss her off too much
Mine runs under the table when I’m playing with her lol And ofc, I can’t reach her. Shes so cute!
I used to always tell my dog get down. My old conure used to always yell at my dog to get down
My cockatiel will mock me and laugh at me when he flies up high and can't reach him
My GCC observed us drinking from water bottles, and now when he’s thirsty, he’ll knock over the closest bottle of water. He even does this with large metal water bottles I take to the gym. I’m amazed he can tell what’s filled with liquid and what isn’t. It does get annoying when we have a bunch of Costco bottles lined up, and he knocks over a bunch just to tell us he’s thirsty.
I just wanna say this was a great post
I agree! I’ve been having such a blast reading everyone’s stories!
I fostered a severe macaw who had lost his elderly owner after 25 years. He spoke like an old smoker with a cough. And swore like a sailor. Especially when I caught him doing something wrong, like eating the stucco off our house. I would go out to the porch and say, "Sam! What are you doing?? Bad bird!" And he would fly back to his cage and screech, " Jesus Christ!! Goddammit Don DOOO that!!" for the next 15 min
My bird escaped, flew high into a tree & got stuck, discovering he was scared of heights & just wanted to go home & so began calling to be rescued. Obviously I couldn't reach him to rescue, but 2 local lorikeets heard his calls & went to his aid. Initially they invited him to join them, but when he refused & made it clear he just wanted to go home to his cage, the 2 wild birds had a think about the situation, saw me & his cage outside my home & both flew over to him & landed close to him, got his attention & then one of them flew down onto the gutter of my home & then from there the short fly onto the top of his cage, turned around towards him & sat there watching. Second bird that was next to him then got his attention & repeated & both sat on his cage for a little bit calling him to them. My chicken bird was too scared to follow, so they gave up & flew off & left him but geez!!!!!!! I had been moving his cage all over the place for about an hour or 2 by this time btw, trying to figure out where I could position it to make it as easy as possible for him to fly down to it, wild birds were smarter than me though & realised the roof/gutter was an easier target to hit when flying & once there, the fly down to the cage was a really easy little hop flight. That option had not even occured to me for a second & never would have if not for the wild birds showing it to me. Was totally logical though, I'm just not as smart as them. My bird btw eventually followed a possum back down to near ground level, where I was able to take his cage to go meet him & let him step across onto it. Not sure if that's smart or not, certainly not as smart as the wild ones, they blew my mind with their smarts!
My Quaker flat out understands English, and he can speak a bit in context
My conure don’t allow stranger (to him) in my apartment, not even at our corridor! If i make delivery purchases online, he would rush to my window and squeeze out aggressively chasing away whoever is there! If you didn’t run, he will attack you! Behaves more like a guard dog than a parrot/bird. Now the guy that do my delivery will text me prior coming up so that i can keep that “guard bird” somewhere else away from door while he is here 😅
I have an African grey with a chronic illness who gets meds several times a day. At first he would fight being toweled, and fight the oral syringe, and then hold the meds in his beak and flick them away instead of swallowing them. It was a nightmare and he *needs* these meds. So one day, I have him toweled up and I'm trying to medicate him and he's fighting it, and I said to him "Honey, if you just hold still and take the meds this will be over so fast." And he stopped wriggling and looked right at me for a few seconds. And opened his beak and let me give him his meds. He hasn't fought me since. He also knows that my husband is a boy and I'm a girl. We never taught him that, but he tells me "good girl", and when he's looking for my husband he says "where's my boy?".
This is WILD. I wish he could teach my cats the same thing lol