Talking AbilityEclectus parrots are now widely claimed to be in the top three in terms of talking ability rivalling the Amazons and the African grey. Eclectus have the ability to be very clear in their speech and without doubt have the ability to mimic different tones of the same sound. Not only can this species repeat single words but they have a proven track record to learn long sentences including complete songs.Many owners of eclectus parrots have reported that males tend to speak with a masculine voice and females tend to sound more feminine, in my own personal experiences with my own birds I feel birds of both gender have a softer feminine voice. As well as talking words eclectus are very good at picking up normal household sounds such as microwaves, water running, mobile phones and any other constant noise. It is only last week that I visited a friend of mine who’s female eclectus was incubating two eggs and she asked about a strange noise the female was making which seemed be of some concern to my friend. It was a very strange noise and the it sounded almost like the female was in agony, it baffled me to say the least and as I watched the female from a camera I could see no obvious signs of discomfort. It was only when I went into her garden I realised she was mimicking the noise of bantams which were foraging in her garden.Eclectus like any other parrot which can mimic does so through hearing repeated words from the owner or through semi direct methods such as in the case of the eclectus hearing the bantams forage every day. Bear in mind that any words which are used on a frequent basis will be picked up even undesirable words.Due to the intelligence of the species, eclectus have been trained to take word association to a higher level by having a clear association with a particular word for a particular task or object i.e. a bird has learnt that a grape is called “a grape” and by calling this word it gets a grape. In this same way eclectus and other parrots have been able to use their words and their associations to communicate some of their wants and desires with their owners. In my own view, the true depth of talking ability of the eclectus is underestimated, for too long there has been an unfair negative stigma attached to this species. I think the reality is too many people have flocked to the African grey and Amazons after reading literature from the early 80’s declaring eclectus as not ideal pets especially the females and this stigma is still there to this day. It is only with the increased breeding of this species in captivity that we have seen a more increased number enter the pet trade and as a result more and more owners have started to keep and realise that the myths surrounding eclectus are far from the truth. To think a species like the eclectus which twenty years down the line is compared to the grey in terms of talking ability says a lot in terms of the Africa greys four hundred year reign of talking parrots.
Talking AbilityEclectus parrots are now widely claimed to be in the top three in terms of talking ability rivalling the Amazons and the African grey. Eclectus have the ability to be very clear in their speech and without doubt have the ability to mimic different tones of the same sound. Not only can this species repeat single words but they have a proven track record to learn long sentences including complete songs.Many owners of eclectus parrots have reported that males tend to speak with a masculine voice and females tend to sound more feminine, in my own personal experiences with my own birds I feel birds of both gender have a softer feminine voice. As well as talking words eclectus are very good at picking up normal h o u s e h o l d sounds such as microwaves, water running, mobile phones and any other constant noise. It is only last week that I visited a friend of mine who’s female eclectus was incubating two eggs and she asked about a strange noise the female was making which seemed be of some concern to my friend. It was a very strange noise and the it sounded almost like the female was in agony, it baffled me to say the least and as I watched the female from a camera I could see no obvious signs of discomfort. It was only when I went into her garden I realised she was mimicking the noise of bantams which were foraging in her garden.Eclectus like any other parrot which can mimic does so through hearing repeated words from the owner or through semi direct methods such as in the case of the eclectus hearing the bantams forage every day. Bear in mind that any words which are used on a frequent basis will be picked up even undesirable words.Due to the intelligence of the species, eclectus have been trained to take word association to a higher level by having a clear association with a particular word for a particular task or object i.e. a bird has learnt that a grape is called “a grape” and by calling this word it gets a grape. In this same way eclectus and other parrots have been able to use their words and their associations to communicate some of their wants and desires with their owners. In my own view, the true depth of talking ability of the eclectus is underestimated, for too long there has been an unfair negative stigma attached to this species. I think the reality is too many people have flocked to the African grey and Amazons after reading literature from the early 80’s declaring eclectus as not ideal pets especially the females and this stigma is still there to this day. It is only with the increased breeding of this species in captivity that we have seen a more increased number enter the pet trade and as a result more and more owners have started to keep and realise that the myths surrounding eclectus are far from the truth. To think a species like the eclectus which twenty years down the line is compared to the grey in terms of talking ability says a lot in terms of the Africa greys four hundred year reign of talking parrots.