Chapter 2 - Teaching Birds to Talk

You may find that your bird is plucking its pin feathers. Suggested remedies for bird disorders will be given later in this book. This is also the time when looking your bird over, to apply the proper insecticide powder with a small rubber bulb blower under the feathers close to the body where mites would be found. Even if your bird doesn't have any mites, a once-a-month delousing is a good preventative. This is best done in the evening, so that the powder will remain among the feather shafts overnight. In the morning, when the bird is uncovered, it is best to let it bathe in tepid water to remove most of the powder adhering to the feathers. If the bird won't bathe it should be sprayed with lukewarm water to make it preen itself. When handling the larger Psittacines for examination and necessary administrations, two leather gloved persons should handle the bird, one to hold the head and legs, and the other to look it over and hold the wings. Polly might object to this treatment, but it should be done for your bird's continued good health.

Which ever species of bird is selected for training, it is preferable to buy young, and if possible hand-raised birds between 2 and 6 months old. A bird's learning abil­ity is not as rapid, the older it becomes. It is much more difficult to teach a wild or untrained adult bird, as its own calls or whistles will have been firmly implanted in its memory.

However, a grown bird still can learn, but the owner will have to use more patience in teaching words to it.

There is much variation in their ability to imitate the human voice, whether hand-raised or wild, young or adult. This faculty depends on the species selected, the owner's teaching technique and patience, and most important, tame-ness of the bird itself. Half the success is assured with a bird which is calm and gives you a bold look when you approach it. In talking ability the African Grey Parrot is said to be the most proficient among birds. However, by careful compari­son it seems that the Greater Indian Hill Mynah and the Javan Hill Mynah, which is the larger, are more distinct in pronunciation, with more human tonal qualities than African Grey or Amazon Parrots. Hill Mynahs don't seem to need as much prompting as Parrots do to start talking. They will answer words or whistles in a few seconds.

Some have lived over 30 years with proper care. Parrots on the other hand take longer to get started, and although their tonal qualities aren't as human, a Parrot's memory is able to retain a greater vocabulary than the Hill Mynah.

The different species of Amazon Parrots from the Ameri­can Tropics are good talkers, some better than others. Cocka­toos can also be taught to talk. Ravens, which are really big black Crows, will talk. Young ones are sold very reasonably. Less proficient talkers are: Macaws, Cockatiels, Conures, Magpies, the Lesser or Malabar Hill Mynah, Grass Parra-keets, English Starlings, Love Birds and the larger species of Parrakeets.

To teach a bird to talk, constant repetition of a word or short phrase is necessary. This can be done at different times, such as before removing the cover from the cage in the morn­ing. In the dark with no distractions, a bird will concen­trate on listening and answering back. Repeating words at feeding time, or when giving it a preferred tidbit helps also. At times, when you may be out of sight, you may hear your bird trying to enunciate some word or phrase. This is a good opportunity to repeat what you want it to learn, or if the bird seems to be attempting a different expression from what you are teaching it, fit in words or a short phrase to go with the bird's vocal efforts and make them clear. Meanwhile keep out of sight and don't approach the cage.

Still another excellent method of teaching your bird to talk, whistle or sing a tune, is by having a phonograph record made with a few words or short phrase on it. If your own voice isn't clear and distinct, some friend of yours could oblige by repeating in the recording machine for you.   The clearest voice is that of a child, next a woman's and lastly a man's. When the record is made it should be played at dif­ferent times during the day, and it will surely drill the lesson into your bird. Let's hope that you can stand hearing the sound of your own voice frequently. It is important when making a record, to limit it to a few words or a phrase only. If you change over to different words or sentences, your time and money are wasted. Birds have a small brain capacity and cannot assimilate too much at one time. If you wish to teach it more make another record. The second record can have the previous lesson partly incorporated into it; however, emphasis should be placed on the new vocabulary. A criti­cism of some records sold ready-made is that they contain far too many words or sayings, which makes them worthless for teaching purposes. Therefore, to build up a good vocabu­lary in a bird through the use of records, have a new one made for each lesson. The previous sayings may be repeated in parts of each successive record, till the last one contains everything the bird has been taught to say or whistle. Science has made another task easier to accomplish.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here….