Bird Talk - How to Achieve It

Posted by admin | February 5, 2010 .

A common reason for keeping a bird as a pet is to try and teach it to talk. Some types of bird are better than others, with the mynah bird and the African Grey parrot high up the list, but a lot of birds will learn to talk if trained patiently, especially if from young. You could take the easy route and buy one that already talks but then it may say things you are not especially fond of and in some cases may not pick up new words as readily, at least for a while, from you as his new teacher.

The best way to teach a bird to talk is to work directly with him. Start with simple words or phrases, and from as young an age as possible. Always use the same, calm tone of voice and repeat the word everyt time you deal with him. Birds seem to react well to words with the letter R in them, e.g. pretty bird. A higher tone than normal helps avoid bass tones in your voice, which some birds seem not to learn so easily from.

You may find after a short time that the bird is sitting seemingly making noises under his breath and this is usually a sign that he is practising the new sounds prior to trying them out loud. That’s a good sign; a bad practice is to swear or show too much emotion in your voice as the bird will inevitably pick up on it and you will find he suddenly starts repeating words you didn’t want him to. Should this be the case, to dissuade him ignore him completely and only praise him or give him lots of attention when he uses the words you prefer. This actually works in many cases.

If the bird doesn’t take to speaking, whistling is another alternative, from which the bird will soon pick up whole songs or melodies.

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