Thingamagigs
New member
- Oct 13, 2012
- 627
- 2
- Parrots
- Mana the manic female galah; yet to be named male corella
OK, this is really long... so if you want to skip all the mumbo jumbo for a summary... see my final sentence 
Firstly... preference is not exclusion.
It is important to understand that, not only with birds, but in every day life.
I have a preference for chocolate raspberry icecream, but I do not exclude everything else from my diet because of it
And some days my mood might take me to cookies n cream icecream, which I also quite like. Occasionally I can not even stand the thought of icecream what so ever. And there may come a time in the future, when my preference changes completely and I never again have a preference for chocolate raspberry icecream. Perhaps because of experience or a change in my biochemistry (e.g. shifting hormone levels).
When you understand that, your confusion should all suddenly clear. If it doesn't, let me further elaborate...
A bird may prefer females, but that doesn't mean it will refuse to respond, relate to or interact with all males.... or any males for that matter.
It certainly doesn't mean they will become aggressive with everyone but a female. It doesn't even mean they will like all females!
And it does not exclude all other preferences.
They may prefer quiet people to loud people, energetic people to calm people, blondes to red heads.... taking all other preferences into consideration there may even come a point where a bird with a female preference responds better to a male than a female... due to its other preferences.
For example... a bird who prefers females may also have the following preferences;
I have a female galah who has a preference for men. She goes absolutely nutty over them. Even strangers! In fact she appears to be more excited by the prospect of a new male entering her territory than of her current "flock".
But she is more than happy to interact with females also. In fact, because of her preference for males, I find it easier to train her because she treats me with a cooler affection than my partner, who she goes out of her brain to be with. The only time she makes her preference apparent in a negative way, is when I (being female) attempt to remove her from a male, especially a new male she is only just getting to know. She will hiss and lunge.
Secondly... just because you have difficulty understanding how your bird could tell the difference between genders of a different species does not make it false. For a good understanding of WHY humans often have so much trouble thinking outside the box to understand another species have a look at Richard Dawkins' "Why the Universe seems so strange". He puts it in very simple terms and many people find it a good reminder of the fundamental differences that can make understanding difficult.
A word of warning though, while he does a very good job of making no religious statement or outright implication in this video, he is an atheist. Some religious people may find his potential atheist overtones unpleasant... but the message he is representing here is important for everyone to understand when dealing with other species.
Now... to get sciency.
There is one significant thing that humans and parrots have in common... a clear lack of citable scientific evidence to support the use of pheromones in either humans or pssitacines. We are only at the beginning of our understanding in the way that we ourselves (and a lot of other species) communicate subconsciously.
The study of pheromones is difficult, because the chemical markers are hard to identify in the first place. The reactions to pheromones are all subconscious as well, making the reactions only observable through resultant behaviour (or MRI of the brain response).
Being that they are subconscious, the affects of pheromones on animals of higher intelligence is significantly masked due to conscious choice often playing a huge role in behaviour.
What we do know, is that there is evidence to suggest that we DO communicate subconsciously through pheromones... and that perhaps, parrots and other birds do also. Pheromones have been attributed to the innate ability for most animals to determine sex, especially where there is sexual monomorphism.
You can read a brief overview on a study performed on the subconscious responses of women to a mans scent HERE.
And an abstract on birds and pheromones HERE with a link to the entire report HERE.
Aside from subconscious chemical communication, there is a multitude of information conveyed through sight and sound for both human beings and psittacines. Again, a lot of this is largely subconscious. Understanding is a much more complex subject than most people are aware.
How does a bird know that your hand, is your hand? Birds do not have hands... and the programming for grasping forelimbs would have been lost to them millions of years ago.
Human lips and teeth show absolutely no familiarity with a psittacines beak, yet they understand that the mushy pink puffy hole on your face is your mouth.
A birds postural and audible representation of anger is completely different to a humans... yet can your bird understand when you are angry?
This type of associative reasoning or implicit learning system is essential to the basic survival needs of all species. It forms part of the completely subconscious reasoning processes of the brain and such information is essential for judging danger and opportunity in other species.
Exactly how it happens is technically unknown, as none of this is a truly observable process. So in reality, none of this can be considered 100% scientifically infallible... we are only able to know as much as we are able to observe, measure and understand as human beings.
We start getting into philosophical grounds going any further
Sooo... I know I have rambled on a lot here... but to summarise...
A humans inability to understand the process with which another species develops or utilises a preference, does not imply that such a preference does or does not exist.
Firstly... preference is not exclusion.
It is important to understand that, not only with birds, but in every day life.
I have a preference for chocolate raspberry icecream, but I do not exclude everything else from my diet because of it
And some days my mood might take me to cookies n cream icecream, which I also quite like. Occasionally I can not even stand the thought of icecream what so ever. And there may come a time in the future, when my preference changes completely and I never again have a preference for chocolate raspberry icecream. Perhaps because of experience or a change in my biochemistry (e.g. shifting hormone levels).
When you understand that, your confusion should all suddenly clear.
If it doesn't, let me further elaborate...A bird may prefer females, but that doesn't mean it will refuse to respond, relate to or interact with all males.... or any males for that matter.
It certainly doesn't mean they will become aggressive with everyone but a female. It doesn't even mean they will like all females!
And it does not exclude all other preferences.
They may prefer quiet people to loud people, energetic people to calm people, blondes to red heads.... taking all other preferences into consideration there may even come a point where a bird with a female preference responds better to a male than a female... due to its other preferences.
For example... a bird who prefers females may also have the following preferences;
- red heads over blondes,
- small people over tall people
- and heavy set people over thin people....
I have a female galah who has a preference for men. She goes absolutely nutty over them. Even strangers! In fact she appears to be more excited by the prospect of a new male entering her territory than of her current "flock".
But she is more than happy to interact with females also. In fact, because of her preference for males, I find it easier to train her because she treats me with a cooler affection than my partner, who she goes out of her brain to be with. The only time she makes her preference apparent in a negative way, is when I (being female) attempt to remove her from a male, especially a new male she is only just getting to know.
She will hiss and lunge. Secondly... just because you have difficulty understanding how your bird could tell the difference between genders of a different species does not make it false. For a good understanding of WHY humans often have so much trouble thinking outside the box to understand another species have a look at Richard Dawkins' "Why the Universe seems so strange". He puts it in very simple terms and many people find it a good reminder of the fundamental differences that can make understanding difficult.
A word of warning though, while he does a very good job of making no religious statement or outright implication in this video, he is an atheist. Some religious people may find his potential atheist overtones unpleasant... but the message he is representing here is important for everyone to understand when dealing with other species.
Now... to get sciency.
There is one significant thing that humans and parrots have in common... a clear lack of citable scientific evidence to support the use of pheromones in either humans or pssitacines. We are only at the beginning of our understanding in the way that we ourselves (and a lot of other species) communicate subconsciously.
The study of pheromones is difficult, because the chemical markers are hard to identify in the first place. The reactions to pheromones are all subconscious as well, making the reactions only observable through resultant behaviour (or MRI of the brain response).
Being that they are subconscious, the affects of pheromones on animals of higher intelligence is significantly masked due to conscious choice often playing a huge role in behaviour.
What we do know, is that there is evidence to suggest that we DO communicate subconsciously through pheromones... and that perhaps, parrots and other birds do also. Pheromones have been attributed to the innate ability for most animals to determine sex, especially where there is sexual monomorphism.
You can read a brief overview on a study performed on the subconscious responses of women to a mans scent HERE.
And an abstract on birds and pheromones HERE with a link to the entire report HERE.
Aside from subconscious chemical communication, there is a multitude of information conveyed through sight and sound for both human beings and psittacines. Again, a lot of this is largely subconscious. Understanding is a much more complex subject than most people are aware.
How does a bird know that your hand, is your hand? Birds do not have hands... and the programming for grasping forelimbs would have been lost to them millions of years ago.
Human lips and teeth show absolutely no familiarity with a psittacines beak, yet they understand that the mushy pink puffy hole on your face is your mouth.
A birds postural and audible representation of anger is completely different to a humans... yet can your bird understand when you are angry?
This type of associative reasoning or implicit learning system is essential to the basic survival needs of all species. It forms part of the completely subconscious reasoning processes of the brain and such information is essential for judging danger and opportunity in other species.
Exactly how it happens is technically unknown, as none of this is a truly observable process. So in reality, none of this can be considered 100% scientifically infallible... we are only able to know as much as we are able to observe, measure and understand as human beings.
We start getting into philosophical grounds going any further
Sooo... I know I have rambled on a lot here... but to summarise...
A humans inability to understand the process with which another species develops or utilises a preference, does not imply that such a preference does or does not exist.
