Will a alone Macaw be quieter?

[Yako]

I was just wondering out of curiosity if a Macaw or other parrot who is known to be loud, lol, is alone will he/she be quieter. I've just been wondering for a while because a lot of parrot owners say that one bird usually makes the entire flock loud. Thanks

 

[ChristaNL]

a flock can also quiet down a bird ...

 

[noodles123]

Macaws are loud in general---Our neighbor had 1 bird (a Macaw) and you could hear it screaming for hours when she was at work...Literally, when standing outside of the house (windows/doors shut), you could hear her bird 4 houses down the street...They are not always loud, but the potential is always there...Macaws, in my experience, are the loudest birds I have encountered...even though some other bird varieties do have the capacity to be louder.

 

[Yako]

Yeah, I've heard a Macaw do a call and even though it has sort of a nice jungle like sound to it it is still insanely loud.

How loud is your B&G ChristaNL?

 

[ChristaNL]

What...you could not hear her over there?
I will ask her to scream louder!!
(just kidding of course)



It takes some getting used to- and you can influence when they scream to some extent.
There is a couple in NL that have about 12 macaws in the house - and their goldfish makes more noise!
They have been trained not to scream for attention (and can all see each other, so why bother?), and sometimes they will have a guest -> that gets "told" by the flock "to just be quiet".

Screaming is their contactcall- so I have been (& am) training her to use "hello?" instead. She came here being taught to scream for attention- ignoring that takes a little practice, I can tell you!
Every time I slip up and react to a test-yell she wil get noisyer and if I keep it consistent she usually shifts more towards "hello?" and "may I help you?" (she has been in a shop for some time I think, she sound like quite the assistant).
So it is very much trainable.
(she does *not* yell at sunrise or sunset -> you always read about them doing)

She will yell 5 times if the phone rings or someone is in front of my door/window (really deafening if you stand too close), or use a single contactcall if she hears me outside.

My neigbours assure me she really is calling less and less, and that it does not bother them.
(I check sometimes with them if she yells when I am out, but that is a negative. HUGE relief on that one!)

If she really yells you can easily hear her half a block/street away.
(Not nice.)

Keeping her quiet when I come home late from danceclass or visiting friends is a challenge in itself. (all the parrots are in the livingroom and I have to cross it)
But we are working on it.

 

[Yako]

Lol, Its great that it can be teached

 

[EllenD]

Lol...I heard him over hear in Pennsylvania Christa...I'm assuming that you can hear my female Quaker?

Any species of parrot can be deafeningly loud. Some are known to be worse than others, but each bird is an individual, and they each have the potential to cause your neighbors fits. And trust me, size DOES NOT MATTER, at least not for what we're currently discussing My female Quaker Parrot, who is a fraction of the size of a full-size Macaw, can be heard 3 blocks away at the bottom of my street if I have the window open. I was walking my dog one day a few months ago around the circle my neighborhood is arranged around, and when I got half way around the circle I could hear her. I was in denial about what it was, or who it was, until I got closer and closer and then got in front of my house....my God she's loud! I've not gotten any complaints in the 3 years I've had her, but i don't know how. It's usually when she's "dancing"...

I think it's hit and miss on a lone bird or multiple birds, and I wouldn't bet on either being quieter than the other, lol. When there's only one they scream because they want attention, and when there's more than one they get each other wound-up and they all scream. You can't win. I stopped trying long ago. They win. They run the house. I only pay the mortgage and buy their food.