Does TV Affect Our Birds?

[Caitnah]

I noticed something today that am curious about. I have my 8 month old Conure in my "TV" room.
He is usually in his cage while I'm watching and he plays merrily along the entire time.

I was watching a movie that had a car speeding towards the camera. As it sped by, it made a whooshing sound. My Conure reacted with a bit of a squawk.

He does this a lot while playing so I replayed the scene and he did it again. He only squawked when the car sped by. It got me thinking about how TV sounds may affect our birds.

The first couple of months that I had him, he was extremely "brave" about new sounds and experiences. Nothing bothered him. Now, he is very wary of everything. He seems almost afraid of his own shadow. He still sits with me like always, but now seems a bit more on-guard.

Is it possible that TV sounds can do this to our birds?

 

[ToMang07]

Absolutely. They can see/hear it about as well as you can.

Willow, for example, HATES scary movies...doubly so in the dark, lol

 

[itzjbean]

Oh yeah....

Whenever there's a sound at ALL like a bird on TV *(animal planet, an ambulance sounding, etc.) , Boo goes CRAZY thinking it's a real one.

 

[Laurasea]

Yes! I put on the kids channel when I went to work several years ago. I noticed my GCC was showing stress so I watched the channel and was surprised at the violence!!! So I found a channel fir toddlers and there was instant dramatic change in him. If it was stressing my burd imagine what it was doing to kids!!!

 

[GaleriaGila]

I haven't seen the Rb react negatively to anything, but he loves MTV, J-Lo in particular, and has learned a few lyrics here and there.

 

[Caitnah]

Yes! I put on the kids channel when I went to work several years ago. I noticed my GCC was showing stress so I watched the channel and was surprised at the violence!!! So I found a channel fir toddlers and there was instant dramatic change in him. If it was stressing my burd imagine what it was doing to kids!!!

Yep, that's my concern. But what's ironic is that many recommend having your bird&cage in the room you spend the most time...which is usually the TV room.

 

[wrench13]

Salty picks up words and phrases from the TV being on somuch here, and he loves to watch parrot videos on youtube. However he freaks a bit at the blank reflective big screen tv when its off ! His latest phrase is...."Wait for it !". No idea where it came from.

 

[Taw5106]

I work at home and have the TV on while working, mainly for background noise. When I leave the house I turn the TV off and turn their Ipod on, mainly because 4 years ago our Samsung flat screen sounded like a gun shooting. It was the power supply, a bad power supply, now I turn it off. Buzz loves sounds, he picks up sounds from the TV. Both Buddy and Buzz do not seem bothered by the TV, I think that since we don't react they read our body language that it's OK.

Buzz's latest sounds are the microwave and just yesterday he started working on my ring tone, it's the Kill Bill Whistle.

 

[ChristaNL]

Sunny really freaked out about the TV when she was here the first few months - so no more late(r) night movies for me -> screaming in protest.

She calmed down in general...and I discovered she likes sports!
Something about a human in the background droning on and on and on really suits her.
(I hate sports on TV, so that is her while-I-am-away treat now)
Favorites: the boring ones like the tour de France, long distance running, skating etc.



Japie actually learned to fly form watching Nat.Geo nature.
He really was clueless about how to use his wings, apart from looking out of the window I don't think he ever saw a flying bird in his adult life!
He just stopped flapping his wings and/or crashed.
Backwinging... he learned from tv!


Now Sunny is feeling better- she does not mind the TV so much, so I get to watch detectives and scary movies without subtitles once again
(I hate the commercial breaks more than she does - a pitty because I really need an excuse to get Netflix!! )

 

[Caitnah]

Now Sunny is feeling better- she does not mind the TV so much, so I get to watch detectives and scary movies without subtitles once again
(I hate the commercial breaks more than she does - a pitty because I really need an excuse to get Netflix!! )

Not to hijack the thread that I started but have to agree STRONGLY, about all the commercials.
I've had Netflix for 20 years. I eliminated cable five years ago due to their high cost and all the commercials.
Now, I just watch local stations for old movies & news. But I watch Netflix about 90% of the time.

 

[Kiwibird]

Parrots have been proven to possess higher levels of intelligence for animals and certainly appear to show something analogous to an emotional response to the same stimuli we do. They also seem to have some rudimentary form of empathy towards characters or sounds they hear conveying positive or negative emotions. For example, cringing when viewing something you strongly dislike. Kiwi does NOT like to be petted. When he views videos of other parrots being petted, his reaction to seeing them being touched makes him react similarly to as if HE was the one being touched, so he's kind of wincing away from the screen and looking uncomfortable. He's not super responsive to most videos (he is much more responsive to music actually), but he certainly does react to some, which to me indicated he has some capacity for feeling "emotions" from different forms of art and media.

 

[Scott]

Now Sunny is feeling better- she does not mind the TV so much, so I get to watch detectives and scary movies without subtitles once again
(I hate the commercial breaks more than she does - a pitty because I really need an excuse to get Netflix!! )

Not to hijack the thread that I started but have to agree STRONGLY, about all the commercials.
I've had Netflix for 20 years. I eliminated cable five years ago due to their high cost and all the commercials.
Now, I just watch local stations for old movies & news. But I watch Netflix about 90% of the time.

Not only are most commercials annoying, but the sound level often increases to get your attention. Except for news, I always time-shift (record via DVR and watch later) and FF to the next segment.

 

[beetory]

My brother likes watching some pretty violent animes and has video games with shooting sounds and my two conures didn't react well to them. They would huddle in a corner of their cage and make quiet chirps or scream very loudly for a really long time. Eventually I noticed that it was the sounds of gunfire/screaming on the TV and now my brother plays the games at a really low volume. After that my birds just started behaving as usual again. Whatever they hear would sound real to them so I get it, I guess it's a good idea to see what type of sounds make your bird react negatively that way you can avoid it or watch at a low volume when you're watching TV.

 

[Jen5200]

I have noticed that my crew reacts to the sounds on the tv, particularly sharp noises like gunfire. So we have gotten into the habit of watching shows at pretty low volume when I think there might be noises that startle the birds and this seems to have alleviated any stress from the tv for them. I leave the radio on while I’m at work because they do like having music.

 

[noodles123]

I haven't read other people's replies, so if this is redundant, I apologize. I have read that the consistent flicker/light of TV and screens in general can induce "ADHD-type symptoms" in parrots...Not like sitting on the couch and watching a bit of tv with you, but leaving the tv on during the day etc. JUSSSST what I read on a vet-type website- dk where or when and not sure that this is absolute.
Kiwibird--- sounds like that is a good indicator for "model-rival" method potential in your bird! Cool that he/she makes that connection digitally.