Those Clever Quaker Parrots
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by Shelly Lane Quaker Parrots are amazing talkers and can say the most clever things sometimes. Here are some more stories of my birds of times when they have said something that is particularly appropriate to the situation. Why not add a comment to this page with one of your own stories? I know you have a good one! |
Note: Seven years ago or so, I wrote a series of articles that appeared in the Quaker Parakeet Society's quarterly newsletter. This is the third of those articles.
Recently one of my Quakers said something so very appropriate that he had me once again deep in thought over how easily these birds pick up our language. It was one of those situations where I did not directly teach him these two phrases, especially not together in the way he used them. Instead, his intellect and language skills allowed him to put the two phrases together in a way that was very meaningful.
Gator has always been very good with names and in fact knows my name and the names of my husband, the dog and the other pet birds. However, he has never learned the names of our pet/breeder Quakers, probably because he has much less contact with them. These 2 pairs spend most of their time in a spare bedroom that we have set up for them.
On this particular afternoon, the Quakers in the "bird room" were being especially vocal. Gator learned the phrase "Be quiet" a couple years ago, taught to him by an exchange student who lived with us for 4 months who had never been around pet birds before. He often uses the phrase appropriately, especially when the dog barks, telling her, "Amber. Be quiet!" So I wasn't too surprised to hear him say, "Be quiet!" in response to the noise coming from the spare bedroom.
As the birds in the other room got louder, so did Gator in his efforts to tell them to quiet down. Then I noticed he was inserting other words between his "Be Quiet's." I strained to catch the other words above the noise, when I realized he was adding the words "Quaker" and "Quaker bird". It went something like, "Be quiet! Quaker, be quiet…. Be quiet, Quaker….. Quaker bird, be quiet!"
I had no idea that Gator had labeled the birds in the other room as "Quaker birds." I contained myself as long as I could before I burst out laughing. Gator laughed with me, and soon the other birds joined in. Then Gator chimed in with, "You're silly!" As we chuckled a little more, I reminded myself yet again to watch what I say around these clever little devils.
9 Comments on Those Clever Quaker Parrots »
January 23, 2008
Carol Kirsch @ 6:49 pm:
I have 3 little wonders (quakers) feathered children and they are 3 year old Kiwi and 1 1/2 year old Quakey and 1 year old Tiki. those 3 are the loves of my life and I take them out with me every chance I get and more so one weekends at the Flea Market we go to every weekend both days and people are always so amazed by the 3 of them they love to snack on things all the time they're always well behaved and very intelligent indeed. They love to eat Jalopeanos Hot Peppers and it amazes people alot Kiwi is the oldest and she talks and the other 2 pick up from her at times, Kiwi will say "I'm The Big Sister" and then in turn Quakey will then laugh at Kiwi for saying that and Tiki will now do the same thing it's so funny and cute at the same time.My 3 quakers love Elvis and I have 2 very favorite movies to enjoy on DVD and in the movie BLUE HAWAII Elvis would say "Is This Game Night At Coco Palms" and after a few times of hearing that all of a sudden Kiwi picked it up and will now say that. Back in Spetember/2007 little 1 year old Tiki just started talking on his own I was putting him to bed and said o.k. now it's time to go BED-BY and he said it right then and there that was his 1st words and my birds like peguins and we have the movie HAPPY FEET and when we go to put on that movie Tiki will say HAPPY FEET, these little guys are simply amazing and with their intelligence of knowing how to say appropreiate things at appropreiate times is just truly amazing, they are what I call Little people in bird suits/feathered children they are the greatest ever.
June 26, 2008
Samantha @ 6:11 pm:
I have one feathered Quaker friend named Kiwi. He loves his fruit, and also his two brothers from another species Kiwi and Pickles. (Love birds) I find that love birds make a great friends for Quaker parrots, and they get along great. I am wondering what kind of snacks would be good and healthy for my quaker? He loves bananas, and watermelon, and seeds but what else? Thanks
October 8, 2008
Twinflower @ 8:13 pm:
Here is a good story, okay, I have one little quaker named Scooter. He is 1 year old and he LOVES to watch Jurassic Park movies and animal planet. One day I walked into the kitchen to hear him making THE SAME noises as the dinosaurs do, kind of. And i watched a snake special on animal planet and now he does this cobra thing where he hisses, rises up high as he can on his feet, and lunges forward with a hiss. Also, he thinks he is a Harpy Eagle. He mimiks the way they raise their neck and back of head feathers when he is grumpy.
Twinflower @ 8:16 pm:
Samantha,
some good foods are oranges, apples with peanut butter.. oh, and my birdie loves to strip celary, they can have anything accept chocolate and avacodo.(random, right?)
Twinflower @ 8:17 pm:
Scooter also added his own phrases together, saying, "Scooter,pretty Scooter, Pretty PRETTY SCOOTER
January 23, 2009
Ashley @ 1:08 am:
I have a 10 month old quaker named Fern Gully. I named her after the cartoon rainforest movie because she is green. i love her to death. She's really funny and very protective. When my friends come over and get near me she tries to attack them. she hasnt learned how to talk yet but she can whistle, laugh, cough, and mimick my voice. oh she can also purr like a cat. its really cute
Ryan @ 2:31 pm:
I have 2 quakers one is green and the other is a female and she is blue. My green quaker zeus is just over a year old and he has a pretty decent size vocabulary. He says "what are you doin." "Huh" "come here" "Hello" and now im trying to get him to say good morning. He also laughs when i laugh, he can make the kissing sound, and sometimes when i sing he bob up and down. My female quaker Hera which, i recently just got she is 2 and she does not talk at all. When i take Zeus out of the room she gets so upset she starts squaking until he comes back. I got alot of work to do with her, but over all she is a pretty good bird.
March 5, 2009
Brad @ 2:30 pm:
I just got a quaker last Friday, her name is angel, it is about 1 years old. The person we got her from said that it only said "dammit" which after reading I figured it was because they always said it. She has never said that around us but my wife has already tought her to say mom, dad, love you, hello, and bye.
She likes to get on top of her bed and when she is up there she will usually tell you she's ready to talk and start repeating most everything like if the tv is on.
Me and my wife were eating Monday night at the table and our dog was begging and got on my leg, I said "Cookie get down" then all of a sudden Angel said "get down" we really laughed about that because it was funny she picked it up from across the room.
Brad @ 2:32 pm:
If my wife makes kissing noises at her she will do the same and she will bob her head up and down if we tell her to. But another interesting thing is she will give me kisses if I have her out and she will actually kiss me on the mouth and nibble my ear. They both tickle, I never realized they were so safe to have and interesting to watch. Not to mention smart.