 It's widely known that they have the human intelligence of a 5-year-old, but they have the emotional intelligence of maybe a 2- or 3-year-old. That can be really difficult. Imagine like you have this intelligent bird that can communicate, but then their emotional intelligence makes some such babies that it's hard for you to manage them within your house. Hello my fellow sniffers and flighters. My name is Marlene McCohen. Are you saying sup? This is Marlene and Marlene wants to say what's up. Marlene also apparently wants to leave the video. Marlene's like literally your first sit-down where you're kind of supposed to just be in the video. How about you try this site and we want to welcome you. Okay. Yeah, we want to welcome you to our channel. Marlene is here today because we were going to talk about something special, which is five reasons why African Greys are my favorite kind of bird. Yeah, I said it. They're my favorite. What do you think about this, huh? I have a bird right here who's kind of upset about that, but I mean that they're my favorite species, not that you're loved any less Jersey. Marlene, I don't know if you know how this goes, but generally I like to have... Do you want to play with something? Can I give you something to play with? Are you looking for something to play with? Generally, Marlene, I like to have the bird I'm talking about in the video, okay? Interesting. Okay, cool. We'll see how long that lasts. Before we go on this video, let's do a couple of shout-outs real quick. I want to give some shout-outs to some people who are part of my flighters club. First shout-out goes to Valerie Kruger. Jersey just left. Second shout-out goes to Janet R. Weissman, Jane Guy, Nerdy Birds, and Katie Rudnick. Guys, I have a lot of birds in this room. Even though you can't see them all, a lot of them are here and then one is outside waiting for me. So I have to get right to it. That right there is one of the reasons why I love African Greys. Oh yeah, by the way, I hope you guys like my merch. This is Vinnie. The official Vinnie from the Vinnie Gang is outside waiting for me. For those of you new to the channel and aren't familiar with Merlin, you might ask why Merlin is plucked. Merlin is a rescue. I got Merlin from Parrot Sanctuary and I found out recently, for those of you who are not new to the channel, that Merlin's actually been plucking since he was two years old and Merlin is now 20 years old. So this is going to be a habit that's probably near impossible to break, but I mean, who knows, we'll try, right? So I know a lot of you guys are going to ask that. So Merlin has only been with me probably like a few months. I have a lot of birds and I promote Gage Not Caged, which means that you engage with your parrots, you include them, you stimulate them, and you don't cage them. Not that they don't have a cage, just that that is not what you get a bird for. But with all of my birds, I'm going to enlighten you guys why African Greys are my absolute favorite. You have heard me say this before. If I woke up tomorrow and had to start all over again for whatever reason, hopefully never, and didn't have any birds, I'd always have to have an African Grey and a mustache parakeet. So the first reason why, and these are in no particular order, because I love doing no particular order, you just come down to step up on my hand. Okay. Is their intelligence. All birds are intelligent. You are going to be shocked by even the smallest of birds, how smart they are. My cockatiel won me over when I was seven years old, because it was just such a genius of a bird. So this day, I'm still impressed with that bird. So by no means do I mean that African Greys are more intelligent than any bird, but they are known for their intelligence. And it's their specific type of intelligence that I'm attracted to. And what that is is their cognitive intelligence, their ability to understand and communicate fascinates me. And by communicate, I do mean talk, but that's not a reason to get a bird. My two African Greys that I have now do not talk as well as my first African Grey George. And until this day, I haven't met many other African Greys that talk like him, but that doesn't mean I don't love them any less. And that doesn't mean that they can't communicate with me in the same way that George did. I have many, many stories on George, my African Grey and how he communicated with me. And you can check those in my storytime playlist, African Grey George stories. I think you guys will enjoy them. Some birds have a more physical intelligence that they like to display. Cockatoos are kind of known for being MacGyver's, getting their way out of things physically. Whereas African Greys are incredibly communicative. If you guys haven't researched anything about African Greys before coming to my videos, I would recommend you go check out Irene Pepperburg and her African Grey who since past named Alex. You could see that Alex is able to recognize different shapes and different colors. So for example, if you have a plate of lots of blocks and some of them are circles, some are squares, but some are also red and some are blue. You could say how many blue squares. The process of deduction that he would have to get to to answer that is incredible and Alex can do it. And even if you don't train your bird or study with your bird that much that he can get to that point. Believe me, if you have an African Grey in the house, you will be fascinated by all of the things that they display to you and all of the things that they learn and they just keep on learning. And again, in no way is this a comparison to other birds to say that African Greys are smarter. It's just their type of intelligence and the way they communicate that I'm in love with, which brings up what would you say about Marla? And by the way, Merlin specifically, like he talks a lot, he mumbles and stuff, but like he doesn't say so many things so clearly and that may change. Even though he's already 21 years old or at least 20, that doesn't mean that he won't be able to learn. Maybe in my house things will change. You never know. But yeah, he talks a lot of nonsense like this, but he is able to communicate. He literally said to me the first day he got here when I was eating something, he said want some and I was like, whoa, okay, you're communicating. And that's the kind of communication I like that I find is fascinating, which brings me to reason number two. They will teach you a lot about yourself. I think I love this because as an actor, I am a human behavior analyst. Birds are the same, but specifically African Greys. African Greys will pick up on all your habits and when you change something, they may make that noise. Let me give you a few examples. With my African Greys, George, I remember one day I set my alarm for like five days in a row. I needed to go to a movie set and wake up at 8 a.m., not a morning person. On the fifth day, my day off at 8 a.m., my alarm rings and I'm like, what the heck? But it wasn't the alarm. It was the bird that kind of analyzed that this is what's supposed to happen. Furthermore, because I would include my bird in every single thing that I did, let's say I would wake up in the morning and get myself ready. I had a series of serums and all face washes and all sorts of things that I put on my face to get myself ready, including like, you know, makeup and such. And all of the noises that would go into that like opening the cap of this, closing the cap of that, shutting the mirror, you know, the mirror door that carries all this stuff. All of those noises George would pick up and he would do them along with me. So it was very fascinating. So I remember I had like this natural flower face spray. It had no perfumes or anything like that. Just like a little natural like dandelion or something. I didn't spray it on my face and my bird was like, and I was like, oh, wow. Like you just told me what I needed to do. Another thing that George would do is like, I would go like this. All right. And before I said, all right, he would say, all right. And then that made me realize that I say, all right all the time. And when he would have phone conversations with people that he was calling, he would say certain things that made me realize that I say things that I didn't know I said or I didn't know that I consistently said, but the bird did. Same with Cody. Cody, my African gray will totally stutter. He'll have like a fake phone conversation and he's imitating George and George doesn't realize like how much he stutters, but Cody does. And finally George was like, you're right. I do stutter. You always tell me, but I didn't know until Cody did it. Also, if George goes to the sink, like Cody will make the noise of George blowing his nose and I'm just like, yeah, we'll know that someone has a cough in the house because miraculously Cody now has a cough. That's just something that's very interesting to me. How they can teach you a lot about your own human behavior specifically African grays because they have the ability to mimic and make all sorts of sounds that no human could make. I mean, we're talking about beeps and buttons and growls and like microwave noises and camera noises. They could imitate a chainsaw if they heard it. I'm sure you guys can go back and find my story about the time that my African gray George literally did an exorcism, which was scary enough, but he did it. And these are the kind of stories and things that just fascinate me. And on that note, that brings us to reason number three. I like them because they're not loud. Let me clarify what I mean by not loud. Can they be loud? Absolutely. And not only that, but any noise that they like, they can amplify. So I had my African gray George with my mustache parakeet and African grays can learn all the, see the beeps, all of the animals in your house noise, like your cat, your dog. They can bark, they can meow and they'll do it louder than the actual cat does it or louder than the actual dog does it. So if you don't like a particular noise, let's say you have construction going on outside your house. It could be extremely loud. I mean, they can do the trucks backing up, the saws, the whatever goes into construction. You guys like it's not my forte, but you know, all of those noises. So if any noises irritate you, yeah, they will pick it up. But with that being said, it's not like having a cockatoo where let's say if Jersey wants to communicate and she's not speaking, her voice is naturally like, you know, or a macaw whose voice can literally get to the pit of your soul. And some cockatoos too, by the way, they have many more forms of communication. Preferably they like to kind of just speak. I'm not saying every African Gray will speak and you have to love them no matter what and you should never get a bird for their speaking abilities. But what I'm saying is that I actually lived in an apartment with my African Gray and the neighbors never really heard anything because if there was something to hear it would sound totally natural like something outside, you know, but these birds have been known to do babies crying and people screaming. So if you do have a particularly loud house, they will imitate it and you have to be careful with that. But in my house, if his voice is kind of like beeping and talking and coughing, it's just it's entertaining to me and it never gets old. So I enjoy that. That's like one of my favorite reasons. And the fourth reason that I love African Grays is they have a certain amount of independence that you're going to hear me talk about over and over again. I'm not saying that they don't want to be with you, but like how some cockatoos like want to be head scratched and they're known for being Velcro birds. African Grays are not as much as bird lovers usually want a bird that they can cuddle. You have to rethink that because if you are able to make a bird too dependent on you, it's not going to be good for you and it's not going to be good for the bird. For me, just having a bird that doesn't mind sitting next to me, but doesn't have to be on me and in me and all over me. It's just more of my style. Some people need to have cockatoos that are very involved in what they do here. Whereas I prefer birds to be more involved like here. You know what I mean? Like if he's kind of new, so he doesn't know how to like sit on different things, but let's say, you know, I put Merlin right there and I could get through work with Merlin just kind of chilling there if he's entertained or being on a play stand. Whereas Jersey will go through many a moment where she's not going to be satisfied if she doesn't get some serious cockatoo love, right? But I mean, of course, it's endearing. It's like the most wonderful thing in the world as well. It's just different. It's just who you are and how you like to lead your life. So that's just something that I appreciate. So that's just something that I love that aligns with my personality, but there's no right way. That's just what I like. And the fifth reason why I love African Greys is because I feel like they have a higher level of emotional stability. So for example, if you guys research and read up about breads, you'll discover that it's widely known that they have the human intelligence of a five year old, especially African Greys, but they have the emotional intelligence of maybe a two or three year old. That can be really difficult. Imagine like you have this intelligent bird that can communicate, but then their emotional intelligence makes them such babies that it's hard for you to manage them within your house. African Greys, I feel like if you have a good bond with them, they understand you so much because they're analyzing your behavior. I just feel like with an African Grey, let's say you've learned to communicate with your bird and to get across to your bird what you're trying to convey. Then I feel like they understand it in a way that they can be a little more emotionally stable. Now I know that sounds kind of weird because here we have an African Grey that is a plucker that obviously succumbed to emotional instability. And actually it's very common with African Greys. So I mean there is that, but remember there's also a lack of education on human beings part on how to communicate with these animals. And I feel like if you do have that with your bird and you do have that capability and ability, then an African Grey bond is one where you can make them a little more self-reliant and understanding. I hope you guys understand what I'm saying. What I'm saying is with the wrong kind of communication, they will absolutely be one of the first birds to succumb to this kind of behavior and depression. And that doesn't necessarily mean that there was something wrong with a previous owner. It just means that there were a lot of changes and things going on that, you know, we can't make the perfect environment for birds because they really shouldn't be in our homes as you guys know. So we're just trying to improve the crisis that we do have, but if you do have a great communication and understanding with your African Grey, because they've analyzed your behavior, they will be more comfortable with what's about to happen next, which is why I go through all my time for techniques and such with African Greys. I know that sounds a little bit complicated and maybe we could get more into that into more detail on another video, but basically I feel like with the right communication, they're one of the most emotionally stable birds that you can have. So those are my five reasons and they're my personal five reasons why I love African Greys. You may have completely different reasons and some of these reasons may not apply to your bird at all. You may have a totally different bird. Honestly, Merlin's my fourth African Grey and they've all been really different, but the reasons that I've explained to you, I can find like a through line with all of the African Greys that we have had in our life and I just love Merlin. I'm very happy that he's part of the family and I think that both George and I love African Greys because I could see that George has a soft spot for Greys and so do I. It's just something that like some kinds of birds and animals just touch your heart and for us, I believe that it's absolutely African Greys. These guys get away with a lot more than our other bird's dill. Merlin's a very good bird. And for those of you new to the channel, if you want to know how Merlin came to me, the whole story is documented. There is a playlist on Merlin. I urge you to watch it. I like to create kind of like series on my channel. So I do hope you go through them and enjoy the story lines. Don't forget to subscribe if you made it this far. If you enjoy my content, it just shows me that you love it and gives me kind of like, you know, motivation to keep on going. Remember engaged, not caged. We want to promote engaging with your birds and not just leaving them locked in cages. Please share this video with somebody who, you know, might be looking for an African Greys or might need some more info on parrots before they commit. I love you guys so much. Bye. Hey guys, the feathered fun box is our new subscription box of toys, treats and other surprises for you and your bird. So don't forget to check the link below and get in on that. And guys, don't forget to check out my new line of organic bird food called Marlene signature blend made with tops. The link is below.