The People Factor

-Parrotresearch.com- A Journey Into the Mind of A Talking Parrot

The People Factor

May 3, 2003

by Ryan B. Reynolds

Parrot Cognition Researcher & Communicator

Contents

Human's general disbelief that parrots are not capable of talking in conversational language is the main reason why they do not communicate more with us. If you had a child that you did not believe could communicate, it would also be detrimental to their growth. Budgies are like humans and need encouragement and understanding to develop to their full potential.

Most scientists claim they can not speak in conversational language. As a result we have been programmed throughout the years to believe they can only mimic speech.

Even when we know that our budgie can use conversational language, we are discouraged or ridiculed when we tell others. When this happens our nature is to begin doubting ourselves or keeping it quiet, so we are not looked at unfavorably or flaky by others.

Often only the person that the budgie has bonded to the most will realize that there is communication happening. That person is pressured by the rest of the family to conform to their beliefs that budgies can not. This can result in family tension. Budgies are sensitive creatures and can feel when they are causing tension and resentment among family members. Part of their instinct is to protect themselves from that resentment. They will often conform to what the rest of the family wants so they are liked more by the majority of their captors.

Extremely good talking parrots can often develop a special bond with the trainer/guardian. This bond is intensified when it begins to talk in context and jealously can develop in humans within a family setting. This jealousy can effect human and people parrot relationships. In extreme cases, the parrot may sense his existence is at risk when human jealousy is most evident.

It has been known for a quite a while that parrots are capable of learning hundreds of words and phrases. There have been several budgies with vocabularies of close to 1000 words in the last few decades alone. Some of these budgies may have been talking in context. However, the recordings were not properly analyzed and misinterpreted as using mimicries only

Until recently it has been very difficult to record them and analyze what they say using a tape recorder. The tapes would have to be replayed over again. There was no easy way to amplify, slow down or replay selected parts of a recording without spending a tremendous amount of time and effort. It has only been in the last few years that we have developed the technology that allows the average person to record their budgie digitally, and analyze the recordings using digital audio software.

Budgies can talk in excess of two hundred words per minute and speak in a low voice which is difficult to understand. It takes a considerable amount of time to adapt to a budgies accent. People cannot understand budgies very well at all by listening to them in real time. You have to record them and play the recordings over and over again to catch what they are saying.

When a budgie needs attention he often mimics what he knows you will understand. That is another reason why we believe they can only mimic. Most people only acknowledge or pay more attention to parrots when they understand them repeating mimicries. This causes parrots to mimic even more just for attention.

When a budgie mimics it talks louder and clearer and when it babbles it is often saying something for the first time. Often babbling budgies and in some cases even larger parrots are talking in extremely good context and thier guardian does not realize it..

Budgies are highly intelligent communicators and capable of learning our language many times faster than us. Humans normally can not fathom the possibility that they are starting to talk in context so fast and again brush it off as mimicries.

A budgies' thought patterns are much faster than ours, and they have the ability to think several thoughts during the time we have one. This also makes it more difficult for us to understand them as they may switch from one topic to another very quickly.

Please read section that relates to this called “Talking Barriers.” Keep in mind that these theories are not yet recognized by the scientific community. However, the recordings I have on this website are providing solid evidence to support them.