Who IS that man (Bird!) behind the curtain?

With the cool breezes blowing, the calender has rolled into early September and the local cultural events line-up kicking off,  I am reminded that Fall is just around the corner.  The back half of our home consists of a fairly large great room, with two sets of glass sliding patio doors.  When I am at home, and Mark isn't looking, I will often keep these doors and their screen doors open so my babies (dogs!) can come and go when they feel the need. 

Conrad, my 15 yr. old African Grey, also lives in the same room.  You can see videos of myself and Conrad on YouTube by going to the following link.  There will be 2 pages of search results - be sure to check out both pages:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tattookub&aq=f

A quick primer on African Grey Parrots:  They have the cognitive sense of the average 4 year old child, including the same language and logistic skills.  While it is true that SOME species of parrots are mimickers, you must understand that African Grey parrots do, in fact - know what they're talking about.  Please review this video of "Alex, The Grey", who could identify what matter something was made of, quantity, qualities such as hot and cold, and much, much more. If you still have the assumption that Grey's are "just bird brains|", then my attempt at this clarification has failed.  While you can find more videos of Alex on YouTube and other sites, please be aware that there is another "Alex" out there, and while she is exceptionally talented, she is not the same fella as in the following video.  In another video with an extended interview, Dr. Pepperberg, his 'main trainer' said that every time she left the lab, Alex always told her "Good Night" in a different way.  One way was, "Good night.  Will you be in tomorrow?"  Dr Pepperberg answered, "Yes, I'll be in tomorrow."  Alex replied, "OK.  Be good.  I'll see you later - I love you!"  I can't watch this video, at the end, without crying when Diane Sawyer said, "Somewhere in Parrot Heaven, the angels are wondering, "What hath God Wrought?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqPvsB9-_J0

Back to Conrad:  African Greys in the wild in Africa were studied, and one flock was discovered to have mastered the entire repertoire or 9 different species of birds, and two species of bats.  Since Greys more-or-less don't have a language of their own, they used these other bird 'languages' appropriately to express their needs to each other.  Conrad is no exception.  He has the entire repertoires of robins, sparrows, blue jays, starlings, crows and Cardinals, just to name a few - in addition English, which he speaks fluently, Spanish - a couple words! - and **every** possible household sound.

For example, a robin.  Conrad knows a spring robin that is defending his territory, a happy mother robin announcing that her clutch has hatched.... the baby robins begging for food, and male robins sparing over a territory.

Even though we live 8 minutes from downtown St. Louis, our back yard is busy with at least two Blue Jay families that have taken up residence there, and several Cardinal families.

One day last fall, Conrad thought it would be amusing to sound like a male Cardinal - knowing very well from his own observations by looking out his window that it would attract the female Cardinal.  It's a simple cause-and-effect process, really.  He noted that when the male Cardinal made a particular sound, the female Cardinal would join him.  The screen doors were open in the sliding doors, leaving a clear path into our Great Room.  I was practicing in my music studio, when I instinctively ducked!  A bird almost clipped my head!  I noted that it was a female Cardinal.  Just seconds before, Conrad was in there calling her - with his male Cardinal voice!  Then, I head him doing a wicked human belly-laugh!  Basically what had happened was that he was calling to entice a female Cardinal, and when he achieved his goal, he cackled at his little joke! 

That poor bird was frantic when she flew into a strange space, looking for her husband - only to find an entirely foreign species doing odd things!  This event happened twice over the course of a couple weeks.  The first time Conrad played tricks on her, I was able to shoo her out the same door she came in.  The second time, she was too frantic to understand what was going on, and I had to corner her, and gently capture her with a bath towel.  I couldn't resist. I maintained a gentle grip while peeling back layers of towel to reveal a beautiful creature.  If you have never seen the color of a Female Cardinal's bill up close, let me tell you that the color is amazing.  Her bill isn't red or brown, as it seems from any distance, but rather a very soft 'petal pink'.  I'm sure there the cosmetology market has several shades of pink in lipsticks and nail polish that are extremely close to this color of pink, but if they don't, they should take a clue from Mother Nature, and go forth and duplicate!

- Michael