Prepare to Be Surrounded by a Large Flock of Budgies!

I must say I am one suddenly of the biggest fans of the Atlanta Zoo, and certainly the biggest fan who has never been there.

MG sent me this news item, about a planned budgie aviary at the Atlanta Zoo, and I think that the concept is brilliant!

This links two of the listed three favorites things of budgies together in a zoo exhibit: those three favorites being: The Flock, Millet Seed, and the highest Perch. However, I am changing my mind re: the importance of the third item (more on that to follow in future posts).

This aviary will allow people to go in and hold out a seed stick. The budgies will be free to land on people and eat the seed sticks. The budgies will be free to fly around and do what they want generally, as the cage will be completely open.

I really love this idea and think that whoever thought of this really understands budgies, and how to get some of the things that are truly wonderful about budgies included in the zoo exhibit! I just wish I could be a part of the planning, execution, and scientific observation teams doing this great project. I will have to settle for being a mere zoo visitor..which isn't a bad option at all either considering how fun this aviary will be!

(note: above image was downloaded from Parrots in the Land of Oz website, this site and PBS special are highly recommended!)

Budgie-ness

I recently heard veterinarian Patricia McConnell on the Diane Rehm show. Patricia McConnell co-hosts a show “Calling all pets” (where mostly cats and dogs are discussed). I enjoy her show and something she said on the Diane Rehm show resonated with me in particular. To paraphrase, she said that she tries not to anthropomorphize her dog(s), but rather, enjoy their wonderful “dogness”. I think that one of the joys of observing animals, including pets, is to think about what it is like to be them. Sometimes people ask: are budgies smart? And I answer, “they may not be very good at being people, but they are expertly skilled and brilliant when it comes to being budgies.” As I have noted, budgies priorties seem to be: the highest perch, the flock, and millet seed (or other treats). These are NOT human priorities. When Sutcliffe feeds Mary ann, it is really “sweet”. However, we cannot assume he has affection for her as our monkey brains would understand it. Sutcliffe is a “good father” in that he sacrifices everything in order to feed Mary ann, and in the past, the young. Mary ann is a “good mother” in a similar way. However, when we project human motives and emotions onto budgies, we lose a chance to enjoy their true “budgieness” which is very fascinating. J. asked, “do you think Sutcliffe wishes he has arms”? That is a very interesting question. Sometimes I wish I had wings, but, I would not give up my hands for them. I really do wonder what Sutcliffe would say.
Conversely, sometimes we enjoy anthropomorphizing. “Cute overload” is one of the best, (and sometimes, worst), examples of that. It is interesting to see ourselves in our pets. Part of this is biological, perhaps, as transference of our desire to love and nurture our own young. Part of it helps us feel companionship from our pets. Some of it may be true: evolution has preserved a number of behaviors across species, especially, species that live in groups (be it flocks, tribes, or packs). It may be reverse anthroporhism to say that I feel that we (K, J) are human members of their flock. We probably wouldn't make very good budgies, though. I guess that means, the budgies would view us as flawed, limited flock members. Hopefully, they "like" us, in their own budgie way, nonetheless.

Bird Adopts Monkey

Many people were suprised by this unusual story about a Pigeon nursing a monkey back to health. However, I was not surprised at all. I would expect no less of Sutcliffe or Boo if one of us human members of the flock were to take ill. Mary ann might even nurture us. Don't you just love the look in the monkey's eyes as he strokes his pigeon friend?

Some Sad News

There are always leaders in every field: in the field of parrots, a great talent has passed away. Alex, the Parrot, worked six to eight hours a day, every day, studying parrot speech: . As you can see from his picture, he is an African Grey, thought to be the most intelligent, or at least, the most easily taught to speak of all parrots. Lets all remember to tell our pets "I Love you" as Alex's owners/researchers told him the night they last saw him, to which he replied "You'll be in tomorrow". I'd suggest a moment of silence, but perhaps more fitting is for us to all say "seven", which he had only just learned, having long been able to count to six.

An Experiment

As an experiment, I took grasses collected last weekend, got them damp, and put them in baggies in the freezer. Today, I took a baggie out, ran warm water through it and across the grasses, and then gave them to the budgies. If this works, I think, then I can use grasses collected this season all winter. The result? Well, at first, the budgies were not too interested. later, they sampled the grass seeds, but not with the usual enthusiasm. I would say, this was moderately successful at best.

Rain, Rain, come Today!

It has been extremely hot (around 100 F yesterday, and 90 well into the night, though cooler, of course, with windchill lol). I worried a bit about the budgies, as noted in earlier posts, but realize they come from Australia, and so should be able to handle, if not enjoy, these hotter temperatures. But what will this do to breeding? In my reading, I found that the drought conditions suppress hormones and breeding. Budgies apparently follow thunderstorms, and flock to places where it has just rained, in order to enjoy the benefits of seed grasses growing. They also really like river eucalyptus, whose trunks and branches are especially favored for nesting holes. (Of note, my brother, who lives in California, sent me some Eucalyptus branches last year, which the budgies devoured when fresh, but was they dried, lost all interest). I am hoping that providing regular showers, and greens daily, will help breeding to take place. But, as I think about Boo's successful hatching, I realize all I did was make sure there was light for 12 hours a day by putting the lamp in the living room on a timer and just leaving them alone.

Can Budgies Talk?

It is clear to me that the budgies have meaningful vocalizations. Once, when the budgies were singing, I told a friend over the phone that they were sounding so joyous. His reply was that a friend had told him, that budgies make noise when stressed or upset. I thought about it, and realized, both were true. The budgies have a specific noise when eating greens, mostly, Sutcliffe to Boo and vice versa, that I think means “here is food” or a specific type of food. They also have a certain squawking, that is associated with running rapidly back and forth on the perch, and sometimes, flapping the wings. I believe this is territorial. And they have several other vocalizations that they make regarding being picked up, fed, romantic.

Perhaps the most famous budgie, Sparkie Williams, could speak 550 words and also recite nursery rhymes-the BBC has archived some of his speech. Another Bird, Alex, was taught to name a number of objects and colors. He also was taught the word “no” which he used often, to try to avoid being picked up, and also, being asked to perform.

Trainer: Alex, what's this?

Parrot: No!

Trainer: Yes, what is this?

Parrot: Four-corner wood (indistinct).

Trainer: Four, say better .

Parrot: No.

Trainer: Yes!

Parrot: Three. ..paper.

Trainer: Alex, "four", say "four".

Parrot: No!

Trainer: Come on!

Parrot: No! Trainer: Alex!

Parrot: Paper .

Trainer: Alex, what's this? Come on.

Parrot: No.

Trainer: You can do it, come on!

Parrot: No!

Trainer: Yes!

Parrot: Paper.

Trainer:

What is this?

Parrot: Four-corner ...paper .

My budgies will probably never learn to talk for two (and maybe more) reasons. Firstly, they have each other to talk to, in their mother tongue, and have no need to learn mine. Secondly, I don't put the time into training them. Perhaps another reason is, that if they learned the word, no", it would become even more hopeless.

Although humans (and probably, Neanderthals) are the only known primates with spoken language, there is some genetic basic for language shared by birds and people. Researchers at Duke and Max Plank Institute including Sebastian Heaesler and Kazurhiro Wada discovered a gene, FaxP2, that when abnormal, causes language deficit in humans. This gene is not found in any other mammal, but is found to be important in the vocal learning of birds.
I think you might enjoy the youtube video of Einstein, the parrot. He is a brilliant speaker, in fact, a “superstar”!