Ezio Spoke!

[StaticMoot]

Ok, I know that lovie's tend not to mimic speech, so I haven't had any expectations. We've been training him to get him out of his biting habits whenever he's even close to a hand, approaching him or not. When he bites, I give him a gentle puff of air on the beak and quietly tell him "Don't bite." A few mornings ago when I was checking my email, Ezio was playing around on my desk. The little guy trots over to my hand holding the mouse and nibbles on the mouse buttons (wireless mouse, no worries). He took one look at my thumb and opened his beak, stopped, and out came a little growly "Don't Bite!" and then he turned and trotted away! Almost like he was reminding himself not to!

He's been so good about biting since then unless he's hungry or feeling particularly grouchy. Even let me scritch his neck!

[michael]

Although somewhat unusual to hear lovebirds mimmic human speech, it is certainly not beyond their capability. .. No doubt in my mind their able to understand it as well. ... Scritchies for Ezio!...........:)

[Enko_chan]

That's wonderful!

I also have a bird who verbally reminds himself to do things or not to do things. I will often hear him say "stop it" "be quiet" when he's struggling with himself to behave.

Lovebirds are capable of speech, but they don't speak as clearly as other species and I think prefer to use body language to communicate. They do understand verbal language, though. My lovebirds have a handful of words/phrases each that they say on occasion, and I notice that they will sometimes make sounds that vaguely sound like the words I've said sometimes, but I've never had a a lovebird who was a big talker.

You have a clever and sweet birdie, there!

[StaticMoot]

Actually, I've been catching up on the stories of your quaker, Koko. A couple almost even made me tear up a bit. He's such a sweetie!

[maya_exquisite]

Aw, that is so cute! Mika is almost 10 and can't mimic anything. The only thing he does is when I say his name, he'll chirp twice in a row as if chirping the syllables of his name.