Aussie birds learn to curse.

[Enki]

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-scien ... glish.html

Escaped pet birds are teaching wild birds English words in Australia.

[Antipatros]

Now that's hilarious. I wonder if their courtship behaviour will change to include the latest pickup lines.

[Azrael]

Now that's hilarious. I wonder if their courtship behaviour will change to include the latest pickup lines.

"Polly want a genuflect . . . Polly want a genuflect . . . wrak . . . wrak . . . Polly want a genuflect . . ."

[noddy]

with my pedantic mode on its a shame they used south american parrots for the picture and having got that out of the way, its a cute story.

i think humans do parrots a disservice using words randomly and confusing context, ive noticed when use them in a consistent fashion they pick it up correctly.

going the other direction, australian crows make these funny long drawn out nasal whine sounds "farkkk.... faaaaaaaaaark... fark fark" and sometimes sitting with a group of drunk aussie males its hard to tell whos making what noises.

[Typhoon]

Now that's hilarious. I wonder if their courtship behaviour will change to include the latest pickup lines.

"Polly want a genuflect . . . Polly want a genuflect . . . wrak . . . wrak . . . Polly want a genuflect . . ."

I knew a parrot that was a kept bird.

People would always say "Hello" to it and it would reply "Hello"

When it got tired of being pestered, people would say "Hello" and it would say "F*ck off".

[Antipatros]

The ability of parrots to make sensible statements wouldn't surprise any parrot enthusiast, I'm sure. The embarrassment possibilities have been noted in humour. E.g.,

The proprietress of a brothel gives a favourite client her parrot to thank him for his custom. He takes it home and prepares to introduce it to his excited wife and daughters. When he removes the cover from its cage, the bird squawks,

Braak New madam, new girls! Braak Same old George!

Ravens have been known for decades to teach their young which people are trustworthy and which are known ravenphobes. Other intelligent animals pass on important knowledge. Japanese macaques who know the secret teach their young to separate food from sand by tossing it on the water.

But why do the parrots find expressing profanities in English preferable to using the parrot-language equivalents? Is it more efficient for some reason? Or is it because it's the vocalisation of a dangerous animal (like a blue jay mimicking a kestrel) and therefore elicits fear from the target bird?

[Azrael]

The ability of parrots to make sensible statements wouldn't surprise any parrot enthusiast, I'm sure. The embarrassment possibilities have been noted in humour. E.g.,

The proprietress of a brothel gives a favourite client her parrot to thank him for his custom. He takes it home and prepares to introduce it to his excited wife and daughters. When he removes the cover from its cage, the bird squawks,

Braak New madam, new girls! Braak Same old George!

Ravens have been known for decades to teach their young which people are trustworthy and which are known ravenphobes. Other intelligent animals pass on important knowledge. Japanese macaques who know the secret teach their young to separate food from sand by tossing it on the water.

The more we learn about animal intelligence, the harder it is to find the dividing line between human intelligence and animal intelligence and the higher up the line goes.

But why do the parrots find expressing profanities in English preferable to using the parrot-language equivalents? Is it more efficient for some reason? Or is it because it's the vocalisation of a dangerous animal (like a blue jay mimicking a kestrel) and therefore elicits fear from the target bird?

I think the second reason is more likely: to mimic the vocalization of a dangerous animal. When one expresses anger, it is good if the other guy doesn't think he can win a fight.

[noddy]

parrots are incredibly obnoxious creatures, they will seek out a tree above a car or tin roof and then squalk with delight everytime they throw a discarded nut at it and it makes a big noise. double points if it shocks humans aswell.

they push each other off branches, they nip another bird from behind then jump away and hope it blames someone else, they do many things of this nature.

as such, they might just pick up on our energy whilst swearing and just approve on an instinctual level - those words are humans fun words.

they constantly do things just for the fun of it, even the older adults - ive seen them queuing up on a downward sloping power line and taking turns at using it like a flying fox, hanging upside down and sliding to the bottom.

every night at sundown all the boys hang upside down infront of the girls by one leg and flap around like idiots, squalking wildly... something very teenage boy showing off about it all

they are also playfully destructive, leave anything infront of them for long enough and they will have reduced it to its components but its not just pure destruction they understand whats going on from an instinctual engineering point of view... there are numerous examples of parrots solving little puzzles faster than most humans can.

its a curse when they are trapped in a small area because they will destroy it but its a blessing when they free roam as they are constantly finding new food sources.

the large forest parrots prune all the trees for maximum flowering each year, yet humans call it destructiveness whilst doing it to their own roses.

these parrots also fly away with uneaten fertile seeds and drop them in clearings, it could be some hardwired dna behaviour but it could also be awareness... im fairly certain they manage (farm?) the forests and its culturally learnt.

[Typhoon]

I recall being told that quite a few plants in the rain forests of Queensland depend on the ill-tempered cassowaries to spread their seeds.

[noddy]

yes its quite a common co-dependancy of birds and plants, bird eats fruit and sh*ts the seed out in a little bundle of moisture and fertilizer.

the sliding scale of awareness up to human farming levels is interesting... i wonder if they choose to lavender in certain places ?

parrots carry seeds in flight then drop them in open spaces for no immediate benefit like a fruit meal - this to my mind is a step above the typical "eat poop" methods.

[Miss_Faucie_Fishtits]

Kewl, as in: "oy..... leave arff my palm nut ya feckin' arse-biscuit er I'll feckin' bite yer knob off!!1!"....XPPPPPPPPP..........

[noddy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20210762

A captive-bred Goffin's cockatoo has surprised researchers by spontaneously making and using "tools" to reach food.

The species is not known to use tools in the wild.

Researchers recorded the cockatoo - named Figaro - repeatedly breaking off splinters from a wooden beam and use them to reach nuts on the other side of his wire enclosure.

The team believe Figaro's feat is the first recorded instance of tool-making among parrots.

figaro's team is however quite ignorant of the rare tropical australian cockatoo that makes its own drum sticks and then finds good hollow branches or trunks to do a drum solo that impresses the ladies

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... n-beat.htm

While undertaking a study on the vocal individuality of the palm cockatoo, ecologist Christina Zdenek also observed the cockatoo’s unusual performance with sticks. After severing a small branch from a live tree, the cockatoos use it to drum against their hollowed tree nest to either attract potential mates or to alert neighbouring males to their claim on a territory.

“This is amazing behaviour – fashioning a tool in a non-foraging context is fairly unique among the animal kingdom,” Christina says.

“For instance, although chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows fashion tools, they do so with food as their motivation. Palm cockatoos, on the other hand, fashion drum sticks from live branches which they use for territorial displays.

“Palm cockatoos also use a seed-pod to drum with sometimes, often from a Bushman’s Clothes Peg tree,” Christina explains. “And they fashion this into a shape which seems fit for drumming.”

and they are also ignorant of my rescued cockatoo which doesnt have a voice - we put a bell in the cage and it now uses that every time a typical cockatoo would have made a noise..

she will even jump off your arm and run to the bell to express something before jumping back on.