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If you are new to sharing your life with a feathered friend, get ready for a pet companion like no other. Not only can parrots fly and have the ability to mimic human speech and sounds, but they are also capable of some seemingly perplexing behaviors that don’t fit the typical dog or cat pet mold. Here are four parrot behaviors that bird stewards are likely to encounter that might seem baffling at first.

Beak Grinding

Birds make a variety of sounds — from chirps and whistles to squawks and, occasionally, ear-piercing screeches. There is one sound that stands out from the rest because it doesn’t sound quite like any other noise a bird makes. It is also the sound you should hope to hear — a soft grinding as your bird slides his/her upper jaw (maxilla) against his/her lower jaw (mandible). Beak grinding can sound like a repetitive scratching sound, similar to if you gently drag your fingernail back and forth across a tabletop.

Beak grinding is the parrot equivalent of a cat contently purring, and it goes hand-in-hand with the bird striking his/her most cozy pose: feathers slightly puffed in a relaxed state (or in the case of a cockatoo or cockatiel, feathers also fluffed partially over the beak). When might you hear your bird grinding his/her beak? Perhaps as a lead-in to taking a midday nap when all is quiet around the house or around bedtime as the bird starts to get sleepy.

Regurgitation

You might spy your bird head bobbing and stretching out the neck, with the final result being some food (usually only partially digested) brought up into the beak and pushed onto a favorite toy or pumped into another bird’s beak. You might also find yourself the recipient of your bird’s special offering. Normal regurgitation is a bird’s way of saying, “You are special to me.” Birds feed their offspring by regurgitating food into their mouths, and a pair of birds will often show this behavior toward each other as a way of bonding. Since you and your bird can’t be mates, your best bet is to politely turn away from your bird’s attempts to woo you, as it can potentially lead to hormonal frustration in your bird.

Strutting

The perfect playlist for a parrot strutting his stuff would include “Macho Man” by the Village People (just substitute “Bird” for “Man”). A parrot strutting is a sight to behold. The bird might waddle around with flared tail feathers and/or flip his wings dramatically, accompanied by eye pinning. When my double yellow-headed parrot displayed this behavior during his hormonal times of the year, I knew to move with caution. If I failed to heed his claim to the space around him, his strut could quickly turn into a sudden scurry with his beak ready to bite. Not all strutting parrots are being territorial. Some strut to woo a potential mate. Because the strut can also be a means to drive off a perceived rival, proceed with caution.

Beak Banging

Some birds, especially cockatiels, have the peculiar habit of banging their beak against the floor, a mirror, or another object. This can be a rapid, tap, tap, tap or a hard thump. Don’t worry, your bird’s beak can take the beating. This is typically attributed to courtship behavior. Your bird might be showing off to another bird, to a favorite toy/object, or to you. He might also be practicing his moves.

There are many interesting stories about proud owners of exotic birds who have lost a feathered friend for one sad reason or another. The stories intensify when we learn that because of a loss, a caregiver seeks to become a solution and a safe haven for other unfortunate large birds. Often this turns into lifelong commitments. These ideas generally turn into small but essential sanctuaries and proper care facilities for one of our most misunderstood realities when seeking exotic pets — a bird who could actually outlive their caregivers.

The Beginning Of PDS

In 2012, Monika Sangar purchased an Eclectus parrot. As a first-time caregiver, she learned how to care for her new parrot like most new owners do — by experience and by acquired help. Within six months the parrot, now named Prego, died from a neurological disorder. Sangar believed the parrot to be much younger than it likely was, but the bird’s age was likely misrepresented. With a wealth of accumulated knowledge sought out during the ordeal with Prego, Sangar decided to apply that knowledge in an effort to assist and help other parrots. In 2014, she opened the Prego Dalliance Sanctuary (PDS) with the acquisition of a rescued parrot named Pepper, who was completely plucked.

During the first year, PDS’ services researched more fully the plight of plucked birds. They examined and studied the diet, environment, and medical care that the troubled parrots received. They also explored holistic medical approaches in an effort to improve upon the health of afflicted parrots.

The Prego Dalliance Sanctuary Helps Parrots And Parronts

During the existence of Prego Dalliance Sanctuary, Sangar and her family have intervened and helped over 100 parrots from lives that might have been mired in pain and disruption. Instead, they’ve provided a loving home, good food, and medical care, all of which are largely dependent upon charitable donations to the service. Additionally, the family creates and sells a collection of enrichment and play toys via Etsy that also help in the needed payments for essential resources that look after the birds in their care.

Prego Dalliance Sanctuary is heavily involved in rescue and adoption, and even fostering services for their birds. They act as a center of information for “parronts” who adopt birds so people are never in the dark about any issues surrounding the bird in their care. Sangar offers this wise advice to potential bird owners: “I will never say, ‘Yes, adopt a parrot.’ They are exotic animals and, as such, need a lot of care. They are loud, destructive, emotional, and highly intelligent animals. You need to be a special type of person to be able to deal with all of that.”

Today, the Prego Dalliance Sanctuary, a small non-profit service located in Los Angeles, is a thriving sanctuary with about 20 birds within its walls. Those birds include Eclectus parrots, ring-necked parrots, and Alexandrine parrots.

In addition to its website, you can learn more about Prego Dalliance Sanctuary at their Facebook page, and their social bases on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and a YouTube channel.

In today’s technological fields, advancements are being made faster than at any time during the history our species. Advancements in medicine, all forms of communications, and even gene-editing to move away from naturally occurring genetic defects have leap-frog events recorded in months and years rather than generational. These advancements not only benefit the human race, but can also be applied toward our fellow creatures on the earth. Some of these new discoveries include the possibility of bringing back extinct animals. With the right set of tools, such an ambitious endeavor could be realized in the near future. But first, a little history.

The Carolina Parakeet

Parrots and other exotic birds are found in many locales. At one time, the United States was home to its own parrot species — one of two — that thrived within its borders. That bird was known as the Carolina parakeet. This bird was found as far north as New York, as far south as Florida, and as far west as Colorado. These beautiful birds eventually died out in captivity in 1918. For over a hundred years, America has been deprived of its own exotic bird species.

The Carolina parakeet was a small bird with a green body, a yellow head, and a red/orange face. For millions of years, these birds flocked throughout their adopted regions. As people began to colonize these regions, their interference in the habitats required for the Carolina parakeet began to contribute to the birds’ decline in population. Eventually, and for a variety of reasons, the bird was soon extinct, never to grace the skies of America again.

The Sun Conure Connection

Recently, scientists involved in gene-mapping visited the closest living relative of the Carolina parakeet, the sun parakeet. The sun parakeet is found in the South American tropical regions. They are themselves considered a threatened species. More sun parakeets live in homes rather than the wild. Also known as the sun conure, this bird is the one that has yielded up its genome as a guide for the evolutionary biologists in mapping the genome of the extinct Carolina parakeet. With DNA extracted from a stuffed bird, the scientists completed their studies to learn how the US-based parakeet actually declined and died off.

Their studies showed that expected warning indicators in the constantly developing DNA of these birds did not create a pointing finger to the suspected cause. Instead, it only proved that the decimation was probably our fault. However, a good thing that came from this mapping is what it could mean for other bird populations that are declining. Biologists could test DNA of living birds in an attempt to detect possible warning signs of the reason for their declines. This could go a long way in trying to help the bird adapt, and thus prevent more extinction events.

In time, DNA extraction and genome mapping could become a boon. For now, such technology is a tool for better discoveries as we move toward a better tomorrow. Interestingly, the Carolina parakeet had an appetite for cockleburs. The common cocklebur is a plant that is toxic to animals — except for the Carolina parakeet, once upon a time. The consumption of the plant left the bird a toxic meal for predators. And yet, the native parakeet was immune. This same study provided the answer to the bird’s safe eating of the plant — two proteins that interacted with the poison to make the deadly plant safe.

Eventually, science might be able to create extraordinary avenues of protection from extinction, as well as the possible return of some desired creatures. Time will tell.

Humans are faced with a long list of everyday things that can lead to an overstimulated state of being. Often, these events result in a wide variety of unwanted feelings and anxieties. We are complex beings and, therefore, fall into complex situations. Our bird companions can become overstimulated, too. And as with people, a collection of unwanted and stressful results can lead to lead to overstimulation in our exotic birds and other pets.

Defining Overstimulation

What is overstimulation? In essence, it is the aftereffect of outside, often unavoidable, contact with sounds, experiences, and unnecessary contact. For human adults, that can be something simple like a loud party with a lot of people, tense moments from work situations, the inability to accomplish something, and many other issues too numerous to list. For babies, it’s over-handling, or an abundance of noise and unfamiliarity. Birds are just as easily impacted by overstimulation. Some handle it well, but others exhibit variable reactions to an environment that is stressful to them.

Overstimulation of birds can be brought on by over-activity in the home. As with children and adults, noise sensitivity can be bothersome to a bird. This might include loud music, children roughhousing near a cage or in the general proximity, or television. Shows with loud, disrupting sounds like gunfire, screaming, etc. that might not bother you could be a source of disquiet for your bird. In fact, if your home is typically quiet, any extreme sound could be upsetting.

Disrupted routines can also be a source of disturbance for a bird. If a bird is cared for by someone else while the usual caregiver vacations or a bird is rehomed for any reason, the change can be terribly upsetting for a bird and lead directly to potentially problematic behavior.

Recognizing Overstimulation

The results of overstimulation in birds can be recognized in many ways. Plucking their feathers, sometimes to concerning levels, hard biting, excessive wing flapping, and screeching for what seems like no reason are all visual and auditory signs that a bird might be feeling stressed. Plucking is an extreme behavior and could be a result of more than just overstimulation. In cases of feather picking/feather plucking, a veterinarian must be consulted to rule out disease, parasites, allergies, infections, and other potential underlying health issues.

Get To The Bottom Of It

Should your bird begin to show results of overstimulation, a checklist can help you to begin to resolve problems. If the stimulation came by way of children being too curious around the bird or too noisy in general, and the bird quiets down after company leaves, then the solution was easily discovered and should be noted. If a bird is in normal conditions and develops overstimulated behavior, then the best thing to do is begin a systematic approach in attempts to arrive at a conclusion. While not all occurrences arrive at fast and sure solutions, it is important that you attend to your bird’s discomfort in a quick manner.

Our exotic bird pets live extraordinarily long lives. They feel life intensely, just like we do.

When we think of parrots foraging for food in the wild, we imagine them flying or walking about to feast on seeds, buds, seedlings, berries, flower blossoms, and perhaps consuming the occasional insect. What doesn’t usually come to mind is a bird supplementing its diet by feasting on mammals (unless, of course, it is a bird of prey, such as an owl, hawk or eagle). Then again, Kea parrots are unique among parrots in many ways.

Their nickname as the “naughty alpine parrot” is quite telling. The “alpine” part is in reference to the Kea’s native range of the forested and alpine region of New Zealand’s South Island, which makes the Kea the only mountain parrot. The “naughty” part references the Kea’s well-documented explorative nature, that often includes fearless encounters with people. The bird is also referred to as the “clown of the mountains,” and has become its own tourist attraction.

These mostly olive-green parrots with splashes of bright orange feathers under the wings, have long, narrow, curved beaks that seems ideal for picking things apart. Videos and photos abound online that show Keas rummaging through tourists’ backpacks, bags, coolers, shoes, and ski equipment. They also appear to have a penchant for picking apart and stripping off the rubber areas of cars, such as around the windows, and antennas as if cars were chew toys.

Parrots that Prey on Sheep!

The Kea has been part of local lore since the mid-1860s when sheep farmers began inhabiting the area. Stories of farmers finding sheep with wounds on their sides began to emerge. Some told of seeing keas on sheeps’ backs and attacking them. Whether or not Keas were actually attacking sheep was up for debate, that is, until 1992. That’s when Keas’ nocturnal assaults were captured on video. Scientists believe that, some but not all, Kea parrots use their long, curved beaks and claws to tear through the wool and eat fat from a sheep’s back. The kea might be inclined to seek sources of fat to help them survive their cold climate. The bird doesn’t kill the sheep but there is the possibility that the sheep could succumb infection as a result of its injury.

Keas are a protected species, but it is said that they were rarely captured in the wild for the pet trade—they tended to be highly destructive when in captivity.

Consider adding “birds” to your Google News alert topics. Doing so might just lead you to some fascinating finds. Here are some recent “birds in the news” stories worth checking out:

• The myth that male birds have the most to gain by seeking out as many mates as possible is debunked. Learn why they instead opt to impress the bird they’re with.
• Think beak shape has everything to do with what a bird eats? See why that might not exactly be the case.
• Patches rich in plant life dot the otherwise arid landscape of Peru. See how scientists were able to connect these little oases to burrowing birds.

The “Wooing” Continues

For birds such as zebra finches, the male’s “wining and dining” of the female carries on after mating. A new study shows that the males of species that form long-lasting pair-bonds often continue to make elaborate displays of plumage, colors, and dances after mating with a female. Some might think that their time and energy could be better spent taking care of the resulting offspring, but it turns out that these displays encourage the female to invest more of her energy into the brood. Here’s the study that debunks theories of sexual selection that predict males have the most to gain by seeking out as many mates as possible. Many male birds, in fact, continue to “woo’ their mates well after the honeymoon period is over.

Beak Shape Is All About Food

Think a bird’s beak shape is strictly influenced by the types of food it consumes? A main theory of evolution by natural selection was previously based on the observation that Galapagos finch species had different beak shapes to obtain different foods, and so it was assumed that this form-meets-function relationship held true for all bird species. New research suggests that the connection between beak shapes and eating is more complex than previously thought. An international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States used computational and mathematical techniques to better understand the connection between beak shapes and functions in living birds.

Bird’s Messy Eating Helps Environments

There’s a reason birds are messy eaters. Case in point is the arid deserts of coastal Peru, where tiny patches rich in plant life dot the landscape. A study on nest-digging birds shows that mounds of sand they dig out can create a micro-habitat for seeds to germinate.

Violence is never a welcome topic of discussion. However, when one of our great birds survives nearly impossible odds after experiencing violence, then someone has to tip a hat to the survivor. In this case, it is a sulphur-crested cockatoo now named Mr. Cocky due to his survival strength and resilience after being shot five times with an air rifle. And not just one rifle — Mr. Cocky was attacked by two different rifles and lived to tell us about it.

Mr. Cocky, who lives in Sydney, Australia, was taken to a local Avian, Reptile, & Exotic Pet Hospital (AREPH) in the city by a good person who found the injured bird in a backyard. (Sulphur-crested cockatoos are native to Australia and can be found in large numbers in some areas in the wild.) The exotic bird was experiencing extreme difficulty moving his wing.

Radiographs were taken, and the hospital surgeons were surprised to find five lead bullets lodged deeply within the bird. One was a horrifying head shot lodged about a tenth of an inch from the cockatoo’s eye. Mr. Cocky was also shot in the shoulder of his left wing. The other three bullets lodged within the bird’s chest. After extensive tests, it was determined to not attempt any removal of the bullets as the trauma might be detrimental to the bird’s already reduced health. It was determined that the bullets would not impact his quality of life.

The hospital’s medical staff opted to use physiotherapy to rehabilitate and bring full movement back to the bird’s left wing. The hope is that Mr. Cocky responds positively to the non-surgical therapy and will be able to return to the wild without complications.

‘Too Tough

The staff at the hospital mentioned that Mr. Cocky is a rare creature who would otherwise have died from the assault. Not only did Mr. Cocky survive five pellets, with one to the head, but he did it with such verve that he even survived an evaluation by the hospital that decides the course of medical action by a “triage.” This triage decides the possibility of a creature’s ability to safely return to the wild. If the injuries are found to be such that a return is impossible, then it is euthanized. Mr. Cocky defied all the cards that were dealt to him and should be able to resume a normal life.

Fortunately, this hostility is a crime under the Biodiversity Conservation Act of 2016. Under the important multi-part protection, this shooting could net the perpetrators of this vicious and terrible crime a jail sentence of up to 2 to 5 years and a hefty fine of up to $22,000 dollars, and potentially more. It is hoped they become identified and face the full penalty of the law.

We’re immensely proud of Mr. Cocky and his will to live. Hang in there, big guy!

I have had the pleasure of caring for different species of parrots from a young age. Some, as society would call them, perfect and some with special needs. The best way to learn how to care for a special-needs bird is to surround yourself with people who also care for these perfect creatures to learn and share with each other. While some may not be up to the task, others have opened their hearts and homes to birds who have needed it.

Cricket And Oscar

I was fortunate to be one of the first people in New Jersey to care for a white-faced cockatiel (a unique color mutation back then). A friend of mine owned a store that I would frequent and knew that they were ready to get some babies in. I put a deposit down on an egg. I would go in and check on chick regularly. We noticed that the chick did not seem to use her feet correctly. On further inspection, we discovered that her legs seemed to be fused and she did not have use of her toes. She scooted around on her ankles. The pet store asked me if I wanted to pick out another bird, and I said absolutely not and I took little Cricket home. She started me on the road to helping other birds that might otherwise be considered society’s castaways.

Cricket used a smaller cage with horizontal bars to make it easier for her to climb. I set up ramps and wider flat perches to reduce her falls. Her toys were smaller so she could move around them with ease.

A few years later, Cricket was joined by Oscar-the-Grouch, a lutino cockatiel, who I got after visiting another store. I noticed in one of the flight cages that contained parakeets, all of the birds were gathered on the floor in the corner. I tapped on the cage and the parakeets took flight. What was left was cockatiel, who was obviously not normal, without wing feathers and tail feathers.

When I walked away for a second, the parakeets went back down in the corner and were picking on him. I knocked on the cage again and parakeets scattered.

Oscar immediately went to a vet before coming home, only to find out that he also did not have any bones in his toes and he was visually compromised. He shared Cricket’s cage for many years before passing away.

Emma Lynn

After my Sampson Bell (“Sam”) passed on of Aspergillosis I was looking online and saw a picture of a little bird who had the same neck collar and red leg band as my Sam was wearing when he died. She was for sale. A lot of circumstances beyond my control kept Emma at the breeder for a very long time. Once I had saved up some money, I was able to go down and purchase little Emma and bring her home.

In my first face-to-face meeting with her, she was sitting on top of a little cage. I foolishly walked up to her and, at that moment, I realized my face was the same height as she was. This little bird with a twisted neck and spine came running over to me across the top of her cage and planted a big kiss on my nose. I would never think to do that with any other bird I have met, but my guard was down with this little broken bird. That was the beginning of our wonderful relationship.

Emma Lynn does not know she is special. Her cage set-up is a little lower than the other greys in the event of a fall. She can fly, but not in a straight line. Due to her curvature, she flies like a boomerang. Over the years she has figured out to fly to the right, to end up at a target that is straight ahead. Emma has never mastered talking, which is probably due to a misaligned syrinx, but she doesn’t have to utter a word for us to know what she wants. Her body language is a clear indicator of her communication.

Igor And Ren

Shari is also a caregiver to some special-abled twisted-neck birds. Recently she posted online that she wanted people to know that, “Giving a home to a special-needs parrot isn’t necessarily a difficult thing.”

Shari wrote “My Igor has a crooked neck. I was advised not to adopt him when he was a baby, because it was thought he would have a short, uncomfortable life. I can’t say how comfortable he is (it’s all he knows), but he will be 25 years old in a few months and is medically healthy. I have another grey, Ren, who also has a crooked neck (and a bowed leg) and he’s around the same age. They act just like any other greys.”

Thumper And Sammy

Thumper and Sammy are African grey parrots who do not have feet and are cared for by Jennifer. She says, “We have come to understand that some parent birds are a little overzealous when cleaning babies and snip little toes or even feet off. Because this happens early on during rearing, the chicks don’t know any different and adapt very well. It does take a little more care on the owner’s part to make sure the birds are in clean environments so they stay healthy.  

“The cages have been modified so if they lose balance, they do not have a far fall. The grate at the cage bottom was removed, and their cages layered with fleece and either newspaper or paper towels on top. This makes cleaning up is a little bit easier. The fleece will break their fall, and they keep their feet clean on the paper towels.”

Jennifer says “the boys,” as she likes to call them, are acrobatic and do some pretty funny and unexpected things, such as hanging by one foot, sliding down the cage legs like a fireman on a fireman’s pole, balancing on a thin bar with a ballerina foot, swinging on their toys while hanging from one foot, and flapping like crazy. She also mentions that the boys can keep a very good beat. They dance, bop, and zigzag their heads to music. Thumper is the ham of the two and loves doing funny things to get attention. They both have a good disposition and seem to always look on the bright side of life.

Never discount a bird that is less than perfect and may need your help. There are many disabled birds needing a good place to land. All my relationships with my special-abled birds have been very rewarding, and I think I’ve bonded just a little more with them as a result. Looking at all the love and joy I’ve shared with them; I would not change a thing.

Thunder and Lightning…

Most companion birds spend the majority of their lives indoors, but may still show considerable sensitivity to outdoor weather, particularly as it relates to changes in barometric pressure. At least one scientific study — even though the subjects were sparrows rather than parrots (e.g., Metcalfe et al., 2013) — provides good evidence for such sensitivity. Interestingly, the sparrows reacted by eating more than usual; they probably did so to make up for time they would lose foraging because of a storm. Researchers found that these birds have special pressure-sensitive organs in their ears that help them track relevant fluctuations (see review in Breuner et al., 2013). It makes sense that creatures that can be affected by severe storms would have evolved some kind of early warning system to help them prepare for what could be dangerous or difficult conditions.

Alex And Midwest Weather

My knowledge of parrots’ reactions to weather is not based on scientific research, but rather anecdotal experience, and pre-dates those papers by decades. When Alex and I were in a basement lab at Purdue in the late 1970s, my students always said that he was the best predictor of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes, well ahead of the local weather forecasters. Unlike the sparrows, Alex did not reach for his food dish. Parrots are much bigger birds with a lot more energy reserves — they wouldn’t need to react the same way — and whether parrots have the same ear structure as sparrows is unknown.

Nevertheless, Alex somehow always sensed the incipient abrupt changes in atmospheric pressure, and would become very “edgy.” He would ask to go back to his cage, or to his gym, or to our knees, or to our shoulders, over and over. It appeared to us that he was searching for, but couldn’t find, a place in which he would feel safe. We learned by chance that, for some unknown reason, playing one of Hayden’s cello concertos would calm him down, and we all got very familiar with that piece of classical music during summers, when such weather was most common!

Location Seems Critical

Alex may have been somewhat special with regard to storms, or maybe it was just being in a place where severe storms were common. Griffin was a bit different. Although Griffin and Alex shared lab space for many years, again in basement laboratories, all of that time was in Arizona and Massachusetts, where storm ferocity (despite Arizona’s summer monsoon season) just isn’t the same as in the Midwest’s “tornado alley,” and in those spaces we really didn’t observe much reaction in either bird to the storms that passed through. Occasionally, we would notice some restlessness that we could correlate to outside weather, but never the really edgy behavior that Alex had shown in Indiana.

We also have never observed any real distress from either Griffin or Athena in our basement lab at Harvard, except for one storm where the thunderclaps were so loud that they could be easily heard by everyone in the entire building. Not only the birds but also all the humans, more or less, levitated in place. But that was an exception. However, we have noticed some differences in their behavior in the temporary space that we have this summer, with its bank of large windows across one wall.

Both African greys, but particularly Griffin, have reacted to the severe thunderstorms we have experienced this year, and even to some of the milder ones. Athena seems to want to be as close to her favorite humans as possible, even if they are near those windows. But, given that she always likes to be close to her favorite humans, her behavior doesn’t seem to change much. Griffin, in contrast, wants to be as far inside the lab as possible. The birds’ cages are in an alcove area along the wall opposite the windows, and Griff insists that he wants to “go back”; he crawls into his cage and sits on the perch farthest away from the lightning and thunder display! Just rain — even hard rain — doesn’t seem to bother either of them at all; it has to be quite a show to get them to react.

Rain Means Different Things To Different Parrots

For many species, the beginning of just a lot of rain signifies that more food will be available in the near future, and thus triggers the start of a breeding season — and therefore not danger. So maybe it is the unpredictability and novelty of the light and very loud noise that gets to Griffin; he’s had very little prior experience with storms in his 24-year life: He came to me as a 7.5-week-old chick and went right into those basement labs. Athena, in contrast, was 4 months old when she arrived in the lab, may have experienced some spring storms before her arrival, and consequently might just accept them as the norm.

I suspect that parrots may also react very differently depending on where their species originate. Friends tell me that their smaller birds —cockatiels and parakeets — seem to like to bathe when it rains outside. That behavior makes a lot of sense given that these species originate in semi-arid areas in Australia and move around to be near water. To them, the sound of rain means that fresh water will be in abundance, at least momentarily, and that they should take advantage of the opportunities it confers.

For the larger parrots that may live in rainforest areas, water scarcity is usually less of an issue, and rain and mist may be more of a constant part of life. Thus, they may be less likely to react, or at most simply become a bit nervous at the approach of an especially big storm. In any case, if your bird begins to act a bit strangely for what seems to be no reason at all — take a look at the weather forecast and see if that might correlate with this behavioral change!

References

Breuner, C.W., Sprague, R.S., Patterson, D.H., & Woods, H.A. (2013). Environment, behavior and physiology: do birds use barometric pressure to predict storms? Journal of Experimental Biology, 216,1982-1990.

Metcalfe, J., Schmidt, K.L, Kerr, W.B., Guglielmo, C.G., & MacDougall-Shackleton, S.A. (2013). White-throated sparrows adjust behaviour in response to manipulations of barometric pressure and temperature. Animal Behaviour, 86, 1285-1290.

For many, music is as necessary part of the day as the air is to breathe. It has many intended effects but is usually sought after for a calming effect. Much has been written on the quality of music for pets. But birds especially seem to take to it with a similar zest that humans do. And although the intents and purposes of such bird attraction to music can be reflected by birdsong for pairing and communication, it’s evident that birds do respond to music, perhaps appreciably. If you, as a bird owner, or as a backyard bird enthusiast, find that your birds are positively responding to music, then this article is definitely for you.

In a recent study, two parrots were given access to designed selectable jukeboxes allowing for the playback of songs. The purpose was to discover if a bird had a preference that they’d return to if given opportunities. For this study, the two parrots used touch screens to choose songs that they preferred. As a result, the birds chose their own favorites some 1,400 times between them within the span of a month. (After writing this information within a previous article, I received responses asking where such a jukebox might be available, hence the motivation to write this article.)

Some owners have Echo (and the cheaper Echo Dot), which are now called Alexa, from Amazon as a service device designed to do a variety of informational and enabled chores. Others have Google Home devices. Both Apple and Microsoft have AI assistants via software that have yet to be ported to a device like Alexa or Home, but they’re likely coming in the near future. Owners of birds with an ability to mimic human voices have found a few of these magnificent and intelligent birds developing a knack to use these devices. And stories are abounding. In fact, one parrot can call his owner, while others have ordered items from Amazon. One of the interesting uses of Alexa that some birds have accustomed to is the ability to playback music at their whim.

The nice thing about the newer and more versatile Alexa and Home devices are their ability to playback a requested track. If you already know your bird has a favorite song (or ten), then a set of simple training exercises could encourage your bird to “ask” Alexa or Home to playback their favorites by request. Of course, you’d have to subscribe to one of the music streaming services (Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, and Pandora Premium). But in time, your bird could possess the ability to musically entertain themselves by music for as long as they wish with what songs they seem to prefer. (For those concerned that their birds might order products, there are safeguards that can be accessed to prevent unauthorized purchases by your ornery loved one(s).)

With a little research and exploration, you should be able to find more than enough information and resources  to set up a parrot-friendly music service that — with some training — could provide your bird with enjoyable music preferences for as long as he or she remains interested in the ability to select music. As technology advances, it’s probable that some enterprising entrepreneur might even create a specific unit just for this purpose. Rocco, the UK African Grey Parrot has famously learned how to use Alexa to his advantages. He’s ordered food items, a kettle, and light bulbs, among other things. But Rocco has also used Alexa to playback some of his favorite songs, especially those by the Foo Fighters, and Kings of Leon. Rocco likes his tunes fast and rockin’!

For backyard birders who prefer to cultivate a sustainable habitat for birds, experimentation and well-placed weather-proof Bluetooth speakers can provide a stream of soothing selections at low-sound levels. Of course, you wouldn’t want to disrupt neighbors with blaring “We Will Rock You”-like tunes. But calming classical music played very low might be a good thing. Experimentation is a key to success in this endeavor.

As I’ve noted previously, we always try to give our birds specific, task-related items as rewards when they respond correctly to our queries. So, for example,  if they identify a piece of wood, they get to chew it up. Same for pieces of paper and such. Ditto if they give the correct color or shape — they get to chew on the green ring or the four-corner piece of wool. The point of such rewards is to ensure that the birds understand the one-to-one correspondence between the label they are using and the object that they receive. With this procedure, they quickly see that their labels are meaningful and can be used to obtain objects and alter their environment.

Sometimes, however, we just can’t give them these so-called “referential” rewards. Maybe the birds are so bored with the toys from extended play, or the objects are too expensive to replace. In those instances, we train them to use the label “want,” so that they can request something else as a reward. In that case, we are still maintaining some reference, as we say things like “You’re right! It’s an X! Now, what do you want?”— and then, within reason, we give them exactly what they request. Again, they see that their vocalizations are meaningful.

Occasionally, the birds are actually directly working for a very desirable reward (e.g., finding a hidden nut) rather than labeling something. In those instances, we try to keep the rewards small enough so that we can fit plenty of trials into a given session before they stop working. Usually, treats like bits of raw cashews or organic crackers are such valued items for them, and they seem like bottomless pits in terms of consumption, that we don’t have any problems getting through the tasks.

Griffin Reaches His Limit

Every once in a while, however, the system breaks down, and if the resulting standoff between bird and humans weren’t so frustrating, it would actually be amusing. We had one such instance when a colleague was visiting and needed to record Griffin saying similar labels (e.g., “cork” versus “corner”) in order to analyze how these utterances differed in terms of various frequency patterns called “formants.” (Each human sound that we — and the parrots — produce is made up of energy bands, called formants, and the relative positioning of the bands, particularly the first and second, can be used to identify that specific sound…such as the vowel in the word “hat” versus that in “hit.”)

A long time ago, my students and I did a similar analysis of Alex’s vocalizations (Patterson & Pepperberg, 1994, 1998), in that case looking at labels that were even more closely related — so-called “minimal pairs” like tea and pea that differed by only one phoneme (a basic or “minimal” unit of speech). The idea for the current study is to see whether Griffin uses the same types of strategies to produce his labels as Alex had used, and whether the more advanced types of analyses now available will provide additional information. The problem was that we needed at least 20 instances of each of the labels that my colleague wanted to study, which meant that we were asking Griffin to say the same things, over and over and over, for several days in a row.

Initially, Griffin was fine. The several microphones in his face didn’t faze him, and he labeled the objects and took them as his reward. Then he began to balk. Understandably — he wasn’t making mistakes, and yet we kept asking the same questions! So, we started bribing him with nuts…either very small pieces after every response, or somewhat bigger pieces after several responses. That worked for a while. Then we had to go to the bigger pieces for every answer. Finally, by Friday evening, he had absolutely had enough: Every time we brought out a new object, even if we showed him a nice big piece of cashew, he would turn away from us and start to preen…or he would state “Wanna go back!” (i.e., to his cage). Clearly, at some point, even his favorite treats just weren’t enough to keep him working at what he viewed as a totally boring task. We didn’t take his picture, but anyone with parrot would have recognized the equivalent of the teenager’s eye-roll that tells a parent, REALLY!!?!?! You’ve GOTTA be kidding!

We really couldn’t blame Griffin — he’s a living organism with his own wants and desires, and we had to respect his wishes. In the normal course of events, we would never push our birds to work when it is clear that their interest in a task has waned. This time, however, because my colleague had only a few days to get all the necessary recordings, we were just hoping that bribes would keep Griffin happy. And they did, but only to a certain extent. I guess that all creatures have their limits.

Patterson, D.K. & Pepperberg, I.M. (1994). A comparative study of human and parrot phonation: I. Acoustic and articulatory correlates of vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 96:634‑648.

Patterson, D.K. & Pepperberg, I.M. (1998). A comparative study of human and Grey parrot phonation: Acoustic and articulatory correlates of stop consonant

When springtime hits, we see increased activity not only on the human side of the world, but also in the creature, plant, and insect side. Everyone and everything bustles to take in the advantages that warmer weather brings. Things grow beautifully. That’s the wonder of the life we’re blessed with. Grasses and flowers awaken and provide splashes of colors for us to enjoy. Increased activities deliver fresh sights and sounds that those of us who experience weather distinctions welcome emphatically. Of most importance is the rush of new life. And while there are no ends to the new life that emerges, it’s important to take special care to the arrival of nests and the babies that experience their initial growth in them.

I’ve personally have had nests made in interesting places. I’ve had birds form nests in my air vents, inside the lids of grills (sneaking in through the rotisserie holes), under busy decks, and on hose racks alongside houses where I’m dived at by parent birds if I even get too close for their comfort. I’ve even had a nest resting on the hinge of an open window in between the screen and the window. With that, let’s run through a reasonable list of preparatory ideas for the arrival of birds and nests during the busy nesting season.

Help Building The Nest

Some bird lovers want to attract nests to their back yards. For those, some want specific types for various reasons.  For people who have Purple Martins in their hopes, it may be because of the insect controls they bring. For others it’s the beauty of Blue Jays, or the comfort and familiarity of Robins. And others simply love the interaction and shared spaces with one of nature’s great marvels of flight.

It’s important to provide easy access to food. That could be a collection of natural food sources like berries, nuts, and seeds. Additionally, a well-placed feeder can be essential to supplement the diets that you attend to with natural plants. Sources of non-stagnant water are necessary to provide places of refreshment and cleaning.

To create safer locations for nesting birds, it’s perfect to set up manufactured, clean, and roomy bird houses for them. This will help to deter birds from nesting in unwanted places (like air vents and grill lids). If you provide nesting boxes, it’s important to learn simple rules. Various birds prefer their nest boxes facing in different directions. Some of them like the bird houses in shrubs and small trees, while other likes them high. Typically, this is because of the types of insects they eat. Some – like Purple Martins – can build nests in large, multi-celled boxes, while others prefer the single room box. It’s up to you to determine the kind of bird(s) you want in those boxes, and which kind of boxes to provide. When Spring approaches and before you have birds in nests, make sure your houses are clean in every way. If you want to help further, leave the expected materials they use to build their nests in a nearby location. Again, proper research will give you tons of ideas.

Once birds have fallen in love with your back yard accommodations, and have settled in for the nesting seasons, it’s important to keep your natural interest in check. As with us, birds are incredibly focused on the safety of their young ones. If you become too invasive, you may disrupt the process, and worse, encourage the birds to stay away from your yard in the future. That’s no fun.

With all of this preparatory information– and this is by no means a complete guide – you can also help in scientific studies with NestWatch. NestWatch is a data-gathering site hosted by the famed Cornell Lab of Ornithology (accessed here). With it, you can use essential online data tools to provide needed information of what’s happening in your backyard habitats that you have carefully created.  Birds and their nesting patterns are always in a state of flux. With new climate issues unfolding, we begin to see changing habits of birds in attempts to maintain the same type of environment they’re historically accustomed to. NestWatch monitors all incoming data to determine changes in the migration and active choices of birds. If a climate change has created a non-effective habitat for a kind of bird (for any reason), their nesting processes begin to fail, which has long-term catastrophic results.

NestWatch is also a deep well of information in regards to types of houses, habitat and habitat preparation, natural and assistive food sources, and many other things. Don’t hesitate to use its wealth of information to help create one of the most exciting backyard thrills that you can sit at, watch, and enjoy for years to come.

Today is National Pet Day — an unofficial holiday celebrated annually on April 11^th that encourages all of us to pay our pets some extra attention. It is also a day to commemorate everything that our pets do for us on a daily basis. If you share your home with a feathered pet, companionship can be filled with vocal duets, conversations that loop back over and over (i.g., you find yourself answering, “How are you?” over and over), and adventures in buying the right toy or creating the perfect item for your bird to destroy. Your bird might be your shower buddy, fellow foodie, dance partner or cuddle bug, etc. Take time today to do something extra special for you bird. Buy or make them a special treat or spend some extra time with them. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Buy or build your bird a new toy or treat
• Take some silly pictures of your pet (or with your pet) and share with friends and family, or update your phone screen
• Don’t let dogs and cats steal the spotlight — share photos of your bird on social media and use the hashtag #NationalPetDay
• Help someone in need buy pet food or other items for their pet bird(s)

How do you celebrate your pet? Do share!

You might have a cockatoo in your home without even knowing it! Yes, your diminutive cockatiel—the most popular pet bird in the US—is related to the much larger cockatoo. Seriously; there are 21 species of cockatoo and the cockatiel, also referred to simply as the ‘tiel,  is one of them. The cockatiel is thought to be one of the earliest offshoots of the cockatoo lineage, and, when you take a closer look at the cockatiel, you’ll start to see the cockatoo connection.

Crest feathers that they can raise up or down? Cockatiels and cockatoos both have them. That adorable way your cockatiel’s cheek feathers cover the side of the beak when he or she is relaxed? That’s a classic cockatoo pose. Cockatiels and cockatoos are also known for their powdery down feathers. If you share your home with a ’tiel or a ’too, you might notice that they leave an “imprint” of themselves if they bump into a mirror or window, or that housing them anywhere near electronics might mean extra dusting.

‘Tiels As ‘Toos

After a bit of debate among taxonomists, the cockatiel was ultimately placed in the monotypic subfamily Nymphicinae (a monotypic species is one that doesn’t not include a subspecies). The cockatiel is now classified as the smallest of the Cacatuidae (cockatoo family). The ‘tiel also falls under the definition of parakeet. But before you start thinking of the smaller, commonly colored blue or green little bird—more accurately referred to as a budgerigar, or budgie for short,—know that parakeet simply means “long-tailed, small- to medium-sized parrot.” Interestingly, it is believed that the cockatiel’s decrease in size, compared to others in the cockatoo family, is a morphological consequence and accompanying change of ecological niche, which is the scientific way of saying that a species evolved to match a specific environmental condition.

All said, there are 21 species of cockatoo. They differ from other parrots not only because of their crest, but also because of their colors. The most popular pet cockatoo species are mostly white, and include the umbrella cockatoo (Cacatua alba), Sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), and Goffin’s cockatoo (Cacatua goffini). There are also black cockatoos, such as the palm cockatoo ((Probosciger aterrimus), and red-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii), as well as gray ‘toos, of which the cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus) is one, along with the gang-gang cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum), even pink cockatoos like the Major Mitchell’s cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri) and Galah cockatoo (Eolophus roseicapilla).

Our response to music is seen in many different ways and on many different levels. Music can induce happiness, sadness, and a multitude of other emotions. It’s why we listen to it. But do animals experience the same type of emotions that we do? The internet is awash with YouTube videos of parrots and other birds bopping along to a song. Of course, a song lyric’s meaning is presumably lost on a parrot, but certainly the music, with its varied sets of beats, harmonies, vocal patterns and other elements, can invoke a behavior in a bird that is often relatable. Plus, it’s easy to recognize that birds themselves employ their own birdsong with which to communicate and to infatuate others of their kind.

Since Darwin, birdsong has been pored over to determine if it is a musically rewarding trait. Over time, the many neural responses to music has been studied to determine just what the intents actually are, or if birds receive a pleasurable “reward” moment. Without getting into the incredibly complicated testing phases created for a 2012 Emory University study, scientists determined that female birds, when hearing birdsong, responded to the music in much the same way as people do. In short, the same neural pathways that the human brain employs are the same pathways in use with female birds. For male birds, they revealed a different acceptance, which was not as easily determined to be positive, negative, or indifferent. In fact, some songs appeared to make male birds angry.

Birds Dig Music

As to human created music to the ears of a bird, many bird owners are convinced that there is an appreciation to what is being heard and that it is at times displayed in a dance. Common parrot dances consist of pumping and bobbing motions; back and forth movement between spaces, and other various forms of what could be considered a physical response to the music being heard. We can acknowledge that some birds learn to move during a “favored” song because the bird was taught to do so. Many owners simply start a song, begin dancing, which triggers a mimicking response in the bird. Eventually, the same song will “jump start” the bird to “dance” just as the bird was taught to.

Ultimately, there are many stories of birds responding to a particular style of music, even to the point of rejecting a song by behavior recognizable to the owner as a dislike response. Other studies have supported that parrots can be choosy as to the type of music they prefer. Some seem to prefer calm and complex classical music, some calm Pop, while others appreciate louder, more raucous tunes. But it was determined that most, if not all, of the birds disliked the popular electronic dance music. Given human and creature individuality, it’s not surprising that birds exhibited a unique preference to what they were willing to hear.

Another unique but small study gave several parrots an ability to self-select songs. A touch screen was installed in cages that gave the birds easy access to several types of music, which revealed unique preferences. In the course of a month’s time, both parrots selected their personal favorites no less than 1,400 times between them. This study encourages the use of selectable jukeboxes for parrots within their cages to afford them yet another method of self-entertainment.

Much is still unknown about how birds appreciate music. But one thing is sure among owners: their birds seem to like music of some kind – just not harsh ambient electronica.

In nature, things happen in unexpected ways. As change moves forward, one of the unfortunate results is that all manner of biological beings inevitably face extraordinary circumstances against that which have served them well for so long. So long, in fact, that we don’t even have proper history of much of it. As historical data began to accumulate, thanks to the extraordinary interests and feats of a few scientists, we have come to vitally recognize what was — and still is — important to many species in terms of habitat, food, predator safety, and climate. Many once vibrant creatures became extinct due to overwhelming changes that did not allow for the sustaining of that species’ kind. With science, however, extinction could now become a reversible event.

In recent years, a science referred to as de-extinction has become more than a flight of fancy in the minds of scientists, especially biologists. To date, science have produced remarkable tools — all still in their infancy, and all looked upon in various degrees of ethics. “Jurassic Park,” the popular novel and movie series, entertained the concept of reintroducing age-old dinosaurs using DNA extracted from fossils of these ancient creatures and merging them with existing animals likely extended from the lineage of the dinosaurs. However, in actual science, it’s been realized that DNA ages to the point it becomes unusable. That keeps challenging storylines like “Jurassic Park” from becoming reality.

The Great Passenger Pigeon’s Comeback?

In 1914, the last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha, made it to 29 years of age before her unfortunate death. She had never laid a fertile egg and, therefore, the reality of the passenger pigeon died with her. But now, some 105 years later, the technology of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats…say that fast!) has single-handedly promised a new era of gene-editing that has a wide array of applications and potential solutions — including human disease management — that could play a large role in what is being referred to as “resurrection biology” or, more to the point — “species revivalism.”

A project known as The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback is in the oversight of Ben Novak, a scientist with an interest in ancient DNA. At the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Novak learned the process of DNA extraction as well as properly sequencing Mastodon fossils. With his current work at the Long Now Foundation, where he has been employed since 2012, he has helped to further establish the core intent of Revive and Restore the extinct passenger pigeon.

The five stages of the de-extinction program for the passenger pigeon include:

• Comparing the genome of the extinct passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) with that of the band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata) to assure compatibility.
• Identifying the right areas of the band-tailed pigeon genome to edit with CRISPR
• Editing the germ-line of the Band-tailed pigeons
• Successfully breeding a new generation of passenger pigeons in captivity
• Reintroducing the new species of passenger pigeons into the wild, with extensive conditioning to help them survive in the wild and close monitoring

A studied approach to the Passenger Pigeon Project will give you a greater realization of the entire project. In addition, the noble purpose of the necessary revitalization of the ecology of North America’s eastern forests, of which the passenger pigeon is thought to be a vital part, is a sought after effect. You can further explore that here.

In addition to Novak’s active work on the de-extinction of the passenger pigeon, he is equally interested in producing a widely shared and available database of extinct species with complete genome information and genetic mapping, all in the hopes of the de-extinction of other species.

With this new science and its upcoming potential successes, the possibilities for the de-extinction of many birds, including those who most recently became extinct — like the Spix’s macaw, or blue macaw, (Cyanopsitta spixii) — can be realized.

What Is CRISPR?

CRISPR technology was adapted from the natural defense mechanisms of bacteria and archaea (the domain of single-celled microorganisms). These organisms use CRISPR-derived RNA and various Cas proteins, including Cas9, to foil attacks by viruses and other foreign bodies. They do so primarily by chopping up and destroying the DNA of a foreign invader. When these components are transferred into other, more complex, organisms, it allows for the manipulation of genes, or “editing.” Here’s an example of a CRISPR research in action to save the Northern white rhino here.

In previous blogs I’ve talked about the importance of using “inference by exclusion” (inferring where something can be found after being given information about where it is absent) for examining nonhuman cognition. Many species succeed at the task at some level, but only a few exhibit a very special case of this behavior involving symbolic communication — something called mutual exclusivity (ME). Interestingly, African grey Griffin demonstrated something very much like ME when initially learning his labels.

Some History On Mutual Exclusivity

The term was first coined by Markman (Markman & Wachtel, 1988), but was previously studied by Carey (1978) under the term fast mapping, in experiments to determine how children acquired their early labels. The task is something like the following: A child is shown two toys that s/he can label (e.g., a ball and a block) along with one novel object (e.g., a cherry pitter). The child is asked to give the experimenter the “dax.” Now, the child knows that neither the ball nor the block is ever called a “dax,” so, by exclusion, s/he picks up the novel item, and thereby maps the novel label to the novel object. Shusterman (Shusterman & Krieger, 1984) used a similar strategy to teach sea lions new labels for new objects.

Of course, the extent of mapping is dependent upon context — if a subject is given several of these trials at once, with several new labels (e.g., “dax,”, “glif,” “nep”), and then given all of the novel objects at once and then asked to choose the “dax,” the mapping often isn’t as good as if the original trial is repeated several times; that is, with only one novel object-novel label connection. However, learning with exclusion is often faster than simple pairing of label and object, and is therefore thought to help children expand their vocabulary.

More About How Mutual Exclusivity Works

ME also seems to help children eventually learn category labels and labels for attributes of objects — but not in their early stages of acquisition. Interestingly, children often have a very difficult time learning that a specific object can have two labels — here, they initially take ME too far, believing not only that every object has a name, but also only one name. So, for example, they happily label the family pet as a “doggie,” but will vehemently state “No animal…doggie!”, excluding the second novel label. Obviously, at some point, they override this aspect of ME, because all normal children learn lots of labels for each of their objects. And, at that point, ME will then help them learn new attribute labels — e.g., novel colors.

So, when given a yellow block, a blue block, and a vibrant pink block, and asked to give the experimenter the “fuschia” one, few of them hesitate in their choice…not only do they know that all the objects are blocks; they also know the referents for yellow and blue, and thus use ME to infer that the novel vocalization had to refer to the color label for the novel attribute. Furthermore, if later asked if “fuschia” is a color, shape or a material, they say it is a color.

Label Training In Parrots

So, how does Griffin fit into all this? Well, his label training differed a bit from that of Alex the African grey. When I started working with Alex in 1977, I didn’t know anything about ME (it was just beginning to be studied in children), but I figured that if I wanted him to learn object labels, I’d best start with items that had very few other attributes, such as color and shape. So, for example, “paper” referred to pieces of a white index card, “wood” to uncolored tongue depressors, and “hide” to amorphously shaped pieces of rawhide. He had no problem learning these labels (Pepperberg, 1981).

When it came time to teach color labels, I dyed several objects with one shade of food color, and then we modeled “What color?” with responses of “green paper,” “green wood,” so that the attribute — the color green — was an additional label rather than a second, separate label, and that two items with different object labels had only that one particular novel attribute in common. Again, Alex had no trouble learning color labels and, in the same way, shape labels (Pepperberg, 1981, 1983). By the time Griffin came on the scene, however, all the various objects in the lab came in all sorts of colors and shapes, and we decided to see if that made any difference when teaching him his labels.

Griffin Tackles ME

Therefore, Griffin learned labels for objects by seeing several differently colored versions of the same item — e.g., green, blue, yellow wooden sticks or pompons — and humans responding to the questions “What matter?” appropriately. He was able to infer that, because the various groups of wood or wool had different color, but common material, attributes — those materials were called “wood” or “wool.” And when we taught him color labels for a group of variously colored but otherwise identical cups, he also learned to respond to “What color?” with those color labels. So far, no problem. But what would happen when we tried to get him to learn attribute labels not as additional, but as alternate labels, for the various items he could already label? Specifically, what would happen if we showed him a woolen pompon and asked, “What color?” instead of the usual “What matter?”

ME then came into play: Indeed, when asked “What color?” for an item for which he already had a label (“wool”), he at first ignored the query, rejected the color label, and responded “wool” (Pepperberg & Wilcox, 2001) even though he knew the appropriate color label! And he simply wouldn’t learn the label “cup!” Just like the young children who initially used ME to exclude “animal” for a dog, it took months of training to get Griffin to understand that an object could be both “green” and “wool,” or “blue” and “wood”— and likewise with shape and novel object labels.

Eventually, of course, Griffin, again like children, fully understood how objects could be categorized with respect to various different attributes, and now is as competent as was Alex with respect to labeling all these attributes (Pepperberg & Nakayama, 2016), and better than even 5-year-old children on physical tasks of inference by exclusion (Pepperberg et al., 2018). However, it was quite exciting to find that the path of label acquisition, including ME, could be so similar for species that are so evolutionarily distant!

References

Carey, S. The child as word learner. In M. Halle, G. Miller, and J. Bresnan (Eds), Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Markman, E.M., & Wachtel, G.F. (1988). Children’s use of mutual exclusivity to constrain the meanings of words. Cognitive Psychology, 20, 121-157.

Pepperberg, I.M. (1981). Functional vocalizations by an African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Zeitschrift fiir Tierpsychologie, 55, 139-160.

Pepperberg, I.M. (1983). Cognition in the African Grey parrot: Preliminary evidence for auditory/vocal comprehension of the class concept. Animal Learning & Behavior, 11, 179-185.

Pepperberg, I.M., Gray, S.L., Cornero, F.M., Mody, S., & Carey, S. (2018). Logical reasoning by a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus)? A case study of the disjunctive syllogism. Behaviour DOI:10.1163/1568539X-00003528.

Pepperberg, I. M., & Nakayama, K. (2016). Robust representation of shape in a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Cognition, 153, 146–160.

Pepperberg, I. M., & Wilcox, S. E. (2000). Evidence for a form of mutual exclusivity during label acquisition by Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)? Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114, 219–231.

Schusterman, R.J., & Krieger, K. (1984). California sea lions are capable of semantic comprehension. Psychological Record, 34, 3-24.

It’s always a treat to discover news stories revolving around the feathered kind, and there certainly some fascinating findings to share.

Here’s a must-read compilation of “birds in the news.”

We who share our homes with parrots can see firsthand what research consistently points to — parrots are smart! Now science helps explain how parrots have set themselves apart from other birds. A new study of the blue-fronted Amazon parrot’s genome suggests that parrots are as genetically distant from other birds as humans are from other primates. In fact, one neuroscientist goes so far as to conclude that “parrots are [human’s] parallel in the avian world.”

See how similar to the way humans evolved away from primates, parrots evolved away from other bird species.

Hiding In Trees Leads to Evolutionary Spark in Birds’ Shiny Feathers

Recent research links birds’ pretty feathers to their evolutionary move to roosting in trees. This fascinating article reveals that birds’ iridescent feathers evolved after they began to live in trees around 150 million years ago. In essence, trees afforded them refuge from predators and having that “evolutionary peace of mind,” evidently afforded birds the opportunity to develop pretty feathers to catch the eye of potential mates.

Laughter Contagious Among Parrots

Laughter can become contagious among people, and now research on New Zealand’s Kea parrot (the only parrot to inhabit mountainous regions) shows that these gregarious parrots also like to get in on a good chuckle.

See how this makes Kea parrots the first non-mammals known to experience “contagious” merriment.

Humans Copied Birds to Make Drones; Now Birds Are Defending Their Airspace

Google “parrot” and your search engine will likely display results for a popular brand of camera drone; essentially a flying, remote-controlled camera. Birds’ biomechanics helped inspire drone innovators, but there are also increasing incidents of birds clashing with drones.

See how drone operators are meeting resistance from the birds who don’t wish to share their airspace.