15 November 2024

Budgerigars or budgies, Melopsittacus undulatus) are native to Australia but are so popular as pets that they have been bred in captivity since the 1800s, resulting in colors such as blue not found in the wild.

Part of the budgies’ charm is that they love to mimic human speech. They do it because …

In the wild, flocks of parrots develop distinct local dialects. Research indicates they use these to distinguish familiar members of their flock from unfamiliar birds of other flocks. Birds respond more to vocalizations that are familiar to their own, and they ostracize individuals that vocalize in a different way. Birds raised in captivity might mimic humans, particularly their owners, to gain acceptance as a member of the family (flock). If they hear a word or phrase repeatedly, they might interpret that as a vocalization distinct to their flock. They then attempt to make the vocalization themselves to maintain their membership of that flock. If the parrot gets no response when it squawks a natural parrot vocalization, but receives attention or food when it mimics human speech, it has an extra incentive to repeat human words and phrases.

— Wikipedia: Talking bird

Budgies are active and very curious.

Did you notice the bird ran some apps on the cell phone by licking the screen?!?

And then there’s “Hey, Siri!”

For more budgie videos, see Kiwi and Pixel the Parakeets on YouTube.

p.s. Paul Hess writes: I wanted to mention my experience with captive budgies in west-coastal Florida as far back as annual visits with my grandmother during the late 1950s — e.g., One of her cage birds learned my name and greeted me perfectly in subsequent visits a year apart. Bill Pranty, an old friend since his teen years in Pittsburgh and now a prominent ornithologist in FL, urged me to write about this budgie’s extraordinary long-term memory. I never got around to it.

13 November 2024

When chickadees are upset they say dee-dee-dee-dee-dee but their message is different depending on predator size. As reported in a 2005 study of black-capped chickadee alarm calls:

The larger a predator’s wingspan or body length, the fewer “dee” sounds the chickadees used in their alarm call, the study found. The opposite was true for smaller predators –– the songbirds would use more “dee” sounds if they encountered a smaller bird, which could be greater threats to chickadees since they are more agile.

— CNN: Crows can count up to four, a new study finds

When chickadees see a red-tailed hawk they give a warning but these hawks are large, relatively slow, and unlikely to capture a chickadee.

So the chickadees slow down their warning dee’s … like this.

On the other hand, northern saw-whet owls are small and agile, just the right size to capture chickadees. You can see how small they are as I held one at an owl banding in 2016.

So when a chickadee sees a saw-whet owl …

… his warning call is frantic … like this.

By the way, the chickadee warnings in this audio were recorded at State Game Land No 203 in Wexford, PA while the birds were alarming at an Eastern Screech-owl. Screech-owls are another dangerous predator of chickadees.

When you hear chickadees, listen for their warning calls to tell you how big the predator is.

If I could find some frantic chickadees, I might find an owl.