I tawt I taw a puddy cat

Duchess the budgie speaks out.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Duchess
• Talking
• Budgie
• Tweety

[jvschouwen]

Excellent question. For one thing, birds don't have a larynx. So, it would seem that they're speech is brought about by constrained whistling. It's a wonder that they can 'talk' at all. Mind you, African grey parrots seem to be able to talk quite a bit louder and clearer. (BTW, if you haven't seen/heard Alex the (African Grey) Parrot talk yet, I highly recommend you search for 'Alex the Parrot' on Google. You'll be amazed at his past speech abilities and intelligence.)

[malakoz]

@jvschouwen

hi seems like you know a little bit about birds. i want to buy one that is smart and can talk clearly not sharp wistling like that gray bird on petstar, what do you recommend?

[jvschouwen]

@malakoz

I'm afraid I can't help with that. As far as I know, it's pretty much hit and miss as to which ones will end up talking. The only tips I could add is that: (1) when you do buy a budgie, have only one in the house--otherwise, they'll just chatter with each other; and (2) pay lots of attention to the bird, build its trust to the point where it will easily perch on you, and spend a lot of time over 2 or 3 weeks repeating the same 1-3 phrases to it over and over and over again.

[MikuMikuBeat]

Her pronunciation is pretty good compared to other birds I've been acquainted with :)

[jvschouwen]

@MikuMikuBeat

Yes, that's what really struck me about her. She was VERY close to me, very motivated, and had the talent to put together phrases quite clearly. If you really want to be amazed, Google "Alex the Parrot" and see what some African Grey parrots can do. BTW, Dr. Pepperburg (Alex's main trainer) was unable to get her first budgies to utter a word, let alone communicate (as Alex did). The parrot family is filled with incredibe creatures and, luckily, not all that unique.

[jvschouwen]

BTW, here's an interesting fact that you wouldn't notice on your own. Did you notice Duchess speaks to my curled finger? Though she would 'talk' when in her cage (in her own time), it turned out that she was particular about speaking on command. I found that, for some reason, she would respond very positively to the curled finger whenever she perched on me. (I'm left to wonder if it had something to do with mating.)

[bigrich0926]

the bird is freaked out because of that frozen hand

[Redman5175]

Now that's not the bird talking because i know no bird of that kind that can talk

[HeroOfZeus]

I had 6 budgies and one knew how to talk :c they were lovely whistlers though always singing in unison i had 3 but they had babies :p

[genericusername337]

ooh i've heard it's hard teaching females to talk, and she's a great talker!

[bilyisbored92]

Nice cell phone you have behide camera

[TenshiRockin]

i like how her head moves whenever she says something XD

[mizcamaro]

SO awesome!

[CainBitterman]

Cool. I thought females didn't like to talk

[penguinjonas67]

is that rlly real?! O: if so then omg that sooo freaking amazing!!!! never seen a bird as amazing as that talk!!

[ANESHAYLAD69]

so cute i have a girl budgie!