Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!iuvax!inuxc!inuxd!jla From: jla@inuxd.UUCP (Joyce Andrews) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: More on Hookbills Message-ID: <1271@inuxd.UUCP> Date: 16 Oct 88 15:43:30 GMT References: <6418@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Organization: AT&T Consumer Products, Indianapolis Lines: 57 > Nice bird. The African Greys have an extraordinary ability to reproduce and > sound. My brother works for an aviary and their Grey will yell at him when he > I'm told that the African Greys are the best talkers of all. Here in the Florida Keys, just about everyone has a shoulder full of bird droppings. There aren't many dogs around, but so many people live on boats, and hookbills are good pets for boats. The consensus is that if you want a bird to love to be stroked and handled, get a cockatoo or cockatiel. If you want one that talks a blue streak, get an African Grey or one of the Amazons. And here is a funny story...My husband and I were stranded on US 1 (a long story involving one of our irresponsible teenagers), and were looking for a phone to call for help. My husband (Fred) started walking south, and I started north. Within a few feet, I spied a public phone, so I hollered "Fred" several times to stop him from walking the other way. From behind a privacy fence, a hookbill started yelling "Fred" with great enthusiasm. I was amazed at the bird's ability to pick that up, and have told the story many times. A year later I got to meet the bird...a scarlet macaw named Fred. And that's the only word he says. Another funny story. Hookbills often know WHEN to say something, because they have heard sounds in sequence. For instance, my blue-front Amazon will sing the second line of a song she knows if I sing the first. Or she'll tell the dog to shut up when he barks. She doesn't know what she is saying...she is just completing the pattern. At a local dive shop, the employees have said to the resident blue macaw..."Polly want a cracker? Stick the cracker up your a**." Now, everytime a tourist looks at the macaw sitting there under the Tiki roof and says "Polly want a cracker?" the bird responds with the second line. And one more. Fred (a strict father) told 13-year-old Chris to clean his room. As Chris started down the hall, the bird BACKTALKED Fred in Chris' voice, saying the things Chris has probably said after Fred left the room. If I hadn't been there to tell Fred it was the bird, Chris' name would be Mud instead of Chris. The bird amazes me with her ability to not only say words but to mimic our voices. She talks like Chris, she bitches like Chris' twin sister, and she laughs and sings like me. She doesn't mimic the older kids, probably because they aren't home as much. Amazing bird. We are planning an aviary, too...but here in paradise all we have to do it screen in our balcony. Then they will have not only plenty of flying area, but a view of the ocean. I am planning on getting her a mate, I guess. She's only two, and was a cruelty case. She deserves some happiness. -- Joyce Andrews King ihnp4!inuxd!jla AT&T, Indianapolis (This message brought to you from the Florida Keys via the miracle of modern communications.)