Cheepers vs Squawkers

[Dialind]

Hello hello all, introducing myself here very briefly ^ ^ /

Myself and my husband will be moving to a new town and settling down soon. I miss having a parrot around the home and I'm looking into adopting one. My mother adopted a rather elderly CAG when I was growing up, sadly passed on now after a long life. She got him from a lady who had to move into a retirement home and couldn't take him with her. He was the best, though he had some quirks that made him difficult to handle and he was pretty cage bound from his time in his former home and only really loved my mother.

Having grown up with a challenging CAG with baggage from his former life I'm pretty sure it's not the best type of bird to get for my husband who has little to no knowledge of parrots. I've also been playing a LOT of Youtube clips for him to decipher how he'll cope with all the wonderful noises our feathered darlings tend to make 24/7 :54: He's come to the conclusion that constant high pitched cheeping throughout the day would be more distracting to him than a squawking session for a couple of hours. He's especially not fond of conure or lovebird cheeps. I've done a lot of research but people specifically talk about screaming/squawking with parrots and not their general day-to-day chatterings, so it's hard to get an idea of what kind of noises each type makes!

So! I'd be really grateful on advice about which parrots have a deeper voice and aren't constant cheepers. I remember my mother's CAG could raise the roof when he wanted, but generally when he was entertained and busy he made gentle clicks and boops and talked to himself - any other parrots who have a similar type of voice? Thanks all

 

[strudel]

My galah is very quiet, not annoying at all. She does some gymnastics first thing in the morning where she flings herself about and flaps her wings and yells, but the rest of the time she doesn't make much noise, what she says isn't irritating or distracting. You can see the yelling sessions of somebody else on this video (I can't hear the lady, but you can hear the bird). You can see how the bird is just sitting there quiet most of the time.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxqE8xMqHo]Galahs as first birds/How loud are galahs - YouTube[/ame]

I met some sun conures up at the shop the other day, I couldn't believe the racket they made when I walked away after talking to them. Very cute and sweet, but I don't know whether I could put up with that noise.

 

[Dialind]

Thankyou strudel! I'd never considered a galah actually, now I have some more reading to do :22:

I forgot to mention that I work from home so company isn't a problem either!

 

[thekarens]

I'm biased, but I'd recommend the poicephalus family. They are capable of being loud, but are known for being quieter. They are great at learning tricks.

 

[Maria_Metropolis]

My galah is very quiet, not annoying at all. She does some gymnastics first thing in the morning where she flings herself about and flaps her wings and yells, but the rest of the time she doesn't make much noise, what she says isn't irritating or distracting. You can see the yelling sessions of somebody else on this video (I can't hear the lady, but you can hear the bird). You can see how the bird is just sitting there quiet most of the time.

Galahs as first birds/How loud are galahs - YouTube

I met some sun conures up at the shop the other day, I couldn't believe the racket they made when I walked away after talking to them. Very cute and sweet, but I don't know whether I could put up with that noise.

Strudel,
I think your Galah is probably the exception to the rule. I hear many are pretty loud, especially in the morning.

You're lucky!

I think Cockatiels are chirpers, and the females are generally quieter. My baby Cockatiel does a low pitched whining sound when he's tired or cranky, but I hear that's common in babies.

An Umbrella, Goffin or Moluccan Cockatoo can wake up the dead. Very loud squawks.

Macaws are notorious for their squawking too, although it's not as bad, usually, as Cockatoos, but it can be.

I hear African Greys are pretty quiet for the most part, but I could be wrong. Eclectus are pretty quiet too, but they can be loud at times, and they do squawk.

 

[Jayyj]

My galah is also pretty quiet, and the impression I get from other owners is that they're generally not loud. They do the banshee scream thing to unwind but it's only a for a minute or so, and tends to be more amusing than annoying. Their squawk is an adorable baby seal honk, which I could listen to all day. Generally when she's playing, foraging or hanging out with me she has a repertoire of squeaks and coos that are more to herself than anyone else, and not loud at all.

On the downside though from what you've described as wanting to avoid, her contact call is a short, high pitched cheep that she'll make regularly for an hour in the morning and it is loud - not umbrella cockatoo loud but it can be wearing, particularly if it's emanating from four inches away from your eardrum. It's not all day though, just her way of rounding up the flock in the morning, and I'd take a galah over most other species from a noise perspective.

My favourite parrot noise has to be the parrotlet - there's nothing more entertaining than a parrotlet throwing a tantrum! Well, as long as it's not dangling off your finger...

 

[Maria_Metropolis]

Well, I think "loudness" in a bird is somewhat subjective. I know some people that think their cockatiels are loud. I tell them, "go listen to some Umbrella Cockatoos." My bird is very vocal for a tiel, but in retrospect, I don't find him loud at all, especially next to other bird species. He could chirp and chirp, and honestly, I don't hear it after a while.

I bet some people would find a galah super loud if they've never been exposed to birds before.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Pionus may be a awesome choice for you, they are wonderful parrots. Very closely related to the amazons. Not to loud, and a great size. Not to small, yet not to big either.

African Greys and eclectus are both relatively quite, if they learn to talk they often prefer that to parrot calls. But they can still be loud, my African lived with a blue and good macaw for 20 years, this means he has a perfect macaw call impression. Not very quite when he does that! My galah Rosie is also pretty quite, quiter than the average galah since she was abused and neglected. She peeps a lot, but it's pretty quite. Everyone in a while she squawks loudly.

All parrots will have loud moments

 

[Captsteve]

Any bird can be loud. It's all relative to the listener.

My Goffin makes his calls in the morning and evening for just a few minutes and occasionally a couple times during the day (like when he hears the Garage door open when we have been gone) It a natural flock call and I usually answer and he shuts up once he knows where we are.

The best thing to do is go to a busy pet shop or rescue center for a listen and see what does not sound annoying.

 

[GaryBV]

My lovebirds are almost constantly cheeping but rarely get very loud. They are in our livingroom and I just block it out lol I don't really even notice it but as I'm typing this they are happily chirping back and forth. My Pacific Parrotlets, on the other hand, are relatively quiet and mostly only chirp when they first see me in the morning or when I'm giving them foods and treats. So if you have decided on the SIZE of a bird you'd like, I defintely favor smaller, Parrotlets are a great choice because they are a full sized parrot in a tiny little body and really are quite lovely.

 

[Jayyj]

Well, I think "loudness" in a bird is somewhat subjective. I know some people that think their cockatiels are loud. I tell them, "go listen to some Umbrella Cockatoos." My bird is very vocal for a tiel, but in retrospect, I don't find him loud at all, especially next to other bird species. He could chirp and chirp, and honestly, I don't hear it after a while.

I bet some people would find a galah super loud if they've never been exposed to birds before.

This is pretty spot on actually! The people I know who are experienced around parrots think Alice is wonderful in terms of quietness, but I have friends who find her really hard going. There's a ducorps cockatoo that has been in the local shop to me for a good while now who makes me run for cover as soon as he starts up, but I'm reliably informed he's got nothing on a U2 or M2 at full throttle. I guess it comes down to your own personal threshold.

 

[strudel]

I guess it comes down to your own personal threshold.

Yes, it's obviously a matter of opinion, and copperarabian is right to point out that all parrots will have loud moments. Based on the comment that her husband would prefer a squawking session over constant cheeping, I understood the question to be not so much who isn't loud, but how and when are they loud.

I think my galah qualifies as a suggestion for OP, yes she's loud when she does her "gymnastics", but she doesn't do that all the time and the rest of the time you can have her right there and forget she's in the room, there's no constant cheeping or racket going on. She makes her noises, she talks, but she doesn't (IMO) make ongoing annoying noise and she doesn't sit there constantly cheeping.

I mentioned the sun conures and what I thought of them just to explain that I'm not somebody who just doesn't recognize annoying. I'm actually very intolerant of noise, I can't stand the tv turned up too loud, or repetitive songs on the radio or songs I don't like on the tannoy at the supermarket, I find quite a lot irritating.

The birds I have, budgies, weiros and galah, I don't find remotely annoying. I suppose you would still get used to the noises of birds you find annoying at first, but I've never found the ones I have to be annoying in the first place to need to adjust to them, both in tone and volume. With the galah yelling, it's a "thing" and you know it is just for a while, there's none of that "WHEN are you going to SHUT UP???" to it. Maybe if a particular bird did that often it could get annoying, but I don't see why they'd keep doing that if you interact with them and they have better things to do.

 

[Dialind]

Thaks guys, we've added Pionus to our list So that's cockatiels, pionus, galahs and possibly a CAG if there's one up for adoption who doesn't have a history of being a one-person bird.

And Strudel is right, loud isn't an issue! I'm more curious about the type of voice each bird has as my husband prefers a lower register compared to high pitched cheeps. I've got lots of info on screaming but there's not much on each bird's content and happy voice when they're just doing their thing. We visited a pet shop yesterday and my husband thought the cockatiels were okay but the lovies were unbearable for example.