A Journey Into the Mind of A Talking Parrot
www.parrotresearch.com
Victor the Budgie
Other Amazing
Budgies
The Phases of Research
There is a massive amount of information about parrot intelligence within this site. Due to the amount of information here and the speed at which it has moved forward, it still needs a considerable amount of work and editing to make it more presentable. I could probably spend another year just going over and fine-tuning the first two phases alone. The trouble is I support a majority of this research myself and have to work a full time job as well. Here is a breakdown of how the research started, and what is ongoing.
Phase 1- Nov 2000 to March 2001
It began with a study of Victor's recordings and how he used context when he spoke. During the initial stages of the study, Victor started using context by saying one or two lines of context at a time mixed with mimicries. Four months later near the end of the first phase, he was speaking in full- blown English and discussing sophisticated humanistic concepts. Also I kept a web journal of his rapid progression during this four month period. It is available by viewing "The Victor Chronicles"
Due to the difficulty most people had in understaning the recordings, I posted them with captions. At the time everyone who had talking budgies were unaware that they could be talking in context. His recordings and captions have provided a base for helping others to recognize their speech and assist their budgies to talk in context as well.
The research documentation includes over 100 minutes of audio recordings and over 30 minutes of videos. Many of these recordings are posted on this site.
Phase 2- April 2001 to April 2003
This part of the study happened after Victor died and involved developing theories around how budgies learn and communicate so quickly. It consisted of analyzing Victor's mate Betty and her three budgie companion recordings. Within a very short time they began to talk in conversational language through listening to Victor's recordings. Betty was only with him a few months before he died but during that time she rapidly learned how to speak in context as well . You can read it and hear their recordings by going to "A Study In Budgerigar Intelligence."
Due to the complexity and the amount of information I was getting from them, I needed three people to work with me eight hours a day, but I was the only one involved at the time. None-the-less, it is a very significant part of the study. Because Betty and the other three males started talking almost immediately, they did not go through the mimicry stage like Victor did and were much harder to understand. After spending thousands of hours analyzing their recordings, I developed a unique ability to understand them. However, no one in the world could understand them at the same level as me at the time and it was more often then enough looked at as me reading too much into what they were saying. Two years later other members of the budgie research group are beginning to understand these recording and confirm my findings duplicating and producing similar results of their own.
Phase 3- April 2003-Present
The Budgie Research Group Started in February of 2001 just a few weeks before Victor died. Not too much happened during the first two years of the group. Although it was active, it mostly involved interests in parrot intelligence and care, however, last year something remarkable happened. People that came to the group with talking budgies noticed that they were talking in context similar to Victor. Some of budgies started talking in context shortly after they came to the group and some learned to talk and use context while they were in the group. Currently we have at least 14 budgies in our group that are talking in sophisticated conversational language. Almost everything that happened with Victor in stage 1 and with Betty in stage 2 have been reproduced many times within our group. There is a separate site for their recordings called "The Budgie Research Group"
Keep in mind that most of the following theories were mostly theories in phase 2 of the study but are actual fact in phase three. Here are some of the theories that are important in understanding why this has not been accepted until now. You can read the full documents from the menu on the left hand side of this page.
It discusses how birds communicate at high levels and why budgies mimic so much. It also brings light to why they have not been identified as speaking in such sophisticated language until now.
It shows why parrots and especially budgies have been so underestimated in the past and helps us to understand more about how they think. There are many barriers which can cause them not to want to communicate with us. These barriers can be overcome if the guardian understands them and works with the budgie like a parent would with a child.
The most important part of a budgies learning process is to want to and be able to bond with its guardian. This bond is needed for the communication process to begin. This section also talks about being accepted in a flock, how budgies learn when there are more then one and the time needed for people to effectively bond with them and maintain that bond.
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 much like humans in that respect and they need encouragement and understanding to develop to their full potential
How recent advances in technology has made it possible for parakeets to communicate with us. Also how parakeets have evolved in understanding this technology to assist them in showing how they are master communicators capable of learning and understanding humanistic concepts many times faster then humans.
The recordings are broken down into three different areas. These areas help the listener to go through steps to learn to understand the budgie accent and verbalizations. All recordings that are are provided with captions to assist you. These captions are more the 95% accurate. They are as follows:
- Mimicries- The mimicries are some of Victor's earlier recordings and show how he even threw in a little bit of his own uniqueness when he was repeating things. He had to go through this stage in order for him to be understood when he started to talk in context. Those budgies that get right into speaking context are far more difficult to understand.
- Statements- This is a collection of some of the first statements Victor made when he was learning to speak in context. When I first started analyzing his recordings these were the parts that stood out the most.
- Conversations-These are his most complex recordings consisting of him telling stories he made up on his own, jokes and even translating bird talk to English. Some of which are easily understood and others take a considerable amount of listening time to understand.
These were Victors last recordings within weeks of his death and are some of his most incredible. I am still in the process of analyzing some of them and producing a captioned DVD. In them Victor mostly talks about how upset he is that people do not believe he is talking. He talks about animal rights and tries to convince other budgies in the world to speak up. He proves not only to be a master communicator but an incredible public speaker who has convinced other budgies in the world to start speaking up and communicating more as well.
Research Menu
