whistling vs talking

[triordan]

Cant remember where I heard it but yesterday someone said that if a bird learns to whistle first, teaching them to talk will be harder.... has anyone else heard this before?? Any truth to it?

 

[brianlinkles]

This is an old wives tale. We must remember that birds do not have vocal chords, all the noises, words, whistles etc. are basically made the same way. If a bird is inclined to talk it's going to talk. If it is a bird that likes to make noises that's what it is going to do. I believe that it is more what strikes a birds interest. I have also heard that if a bird whistles and makes lots of noises as a youngster then it may be a more vocal bird since it is already communicating with noise. I just think that the more you talk to your bird the better the chances that it will pick up words. My grey Dorothy whistles, makes noises but also speaks.

 

[strudel]

My adopted weiro talks, but I don't understand what he's saying. He also whistles. I whistled just a little bit at him and off he went. I'm not sure whether he knew it from before or learnt it from me. He also seems to have learnt the sound of the drill which I was giving a huge workout when I was fixing up my galah's cage before she moved in. He goes through his repertoire as he pleases, sometimes he's just quiet.

 

[MonicaMc]

The whistling theory is about cockatiels, since they are very good whistlers!


I have a female cockatiel that whistles. Almost sounds like "pretty bird" the way she does it.... I can't whistle at all!

 

[lotosha]

I whistle to my parrots a lot. Let's say the parrot is in it's cage while I'am at the kitchen. It whistles and I answer, so it knows it's not alone.
My female CAG can talk a bit despite the whistling. Also I brought her a male CAG. People told me that she'll end up bonding with her partner and won't learn any new words. So far this was proven wrong. Both of my CAG are bonded to me and the female has learned 2 new words since we have the male.
Oh, and she also whistles "Always look on the bright side of life" which is hilarious.

 

[strudel]

Oh, and she also whistles "Always look on the bright side of life" which is hilarious.

That's priceless, I'm going to try to teach that to Tony. He's picked up "my" whistling at him, and also the sound of the drill as I was fixing up my cocky's cage, so maybe he could learn that too. I'd rather hear that of a morning than the drill trying to to penetrate the steel bars of a cage.

 

[lotosha]

Go for it. It's so funny. Mine learned it because my husband had this song as alarm clock melody.
Interestingly, my Tosja mostly learned the words that I say to her first thing in the morning: "hello", "good morning", "Tosja" (her name) and "what's up". Maybe because she's so happy to start a new day.
So now when I try to teach her a new word, I try to say it first thing in a morning.