Do Your Cockatoos Talk?
By John McGrath : Copyright retained by author.
This is one of the most often asked questions that I receive on enquiries about
the cockatoos that I keep and breed!
My usual answer is B'd if I know, I don't have time to train them to imitate
voice in general, stating that I have too many birds to devote individual
training too any given bird, but on reflection I think, "Yes of course they do"!
Well at least they "mirror" my greetings and warning whistles as I approach
their enclosures during my rounds! I will go through some other examples of
what my charges are capable of and things that I or others have taught them
over the years.
(I believe that the new owner of the bird should put some time and effort
in with the bird and get it to talk as they would like)
Obviously being cockatoos they pick up things off each other as the whole
collection is in close proximity to each other!
My 1981 hatched aviary bred Sulphur Crested (Cacatua galerita) cock named
Charlie, was reared with the kids and named by them as they had amongst
one of their more favoured books, a book titled Charlie the Cheeky Kea. Well
the little round ball with pin feathers was Christened Charlie, and preemergence from his cardboard box nest was saying "Hello Charlie" amongst
repeating other messages issued by my wife as in "Charlies a bugger of a
bird!" Poor little misguided baby!
Now most of the combination flock of cockatoos emit "Hello Charlie" at
various hours of the day or night! This particularly applies to the Longbilled
Corellas, both the Eastern Longbills (Cacatua tenuirostris) and their "very"
distant cousins from north of Perth Western Australia the Western Longbills
(Cacatua pastinator butleri), both these species of Corellas show remarkable
intelligence and pick up and retain vocabulary very easierly! Of the Western
Austrailian Longbills I have kept two cock birds come straight too mind not
only for their verbalisation but also their willingness to perform "tricks". One
could often be caught unawares to your watching spinning a stick around and
around passing the stick from foot to foot whilst laying flat on his back on the
aviary floor! His colleague further down the aviary line I could carry around by
simply hooking his upper mandible over my forefinger and lifting him off his
perch, he was willing just to hang there as long as I had time to play. This
behaviour seems to be an inbuilt trait for Cockatoos, Peter who is the son of
the "stick spinner” mentioned above, I have several times witnessed simply
hanging from the mesh on the top of his enclosure, my initial embedded
reaction was that he had got his mandible jammed in the mesh and had died
as a result. (I have had this happen!) On closer inspection my fears seemed
confirmed, the Corella hanging straight down eyes closed and apparently
lifeless, then all of a sudden the “near side eyelid” would "flick" open and
Peter would drop back to his perch. Then this bird would look at you as if to
say, "What’s wrong with you?" In conversation with my mother, she
mentioned a Sulphur Crested she had seen hanging by his bill on a power
line, her initial thoughts "Oh hes' zapped himself"! (Sulphurs love spinning
around and around power lines often to die as a result of coming into contact
with the other conductor) Mum has moved on about her chores only to
witness the cockatoo let go and fly away! This behaviour may simply be the
equivalent of Cockatoo spinal stretching!
Other "party tricks" my birds will perform, include flicking stones about the
aviary, throwing pebbles/rocks in water bowls, idly flicking the chains I have
suspended in some of their flights away and catching it on its return, also the
ability to undo "dog clips", the ability to undo padbolts on the outside of their
aviary door from inside the aviary. (One particular WA Longbilled Corella hen
that I have, I only stopped undoing the padbolt by my dropping a dog clip
through the hole in the padbolt) ie double locked! At one time I had a pair of
WA Galahs (Eolophus roseicappila assimilis), open a catch and enter the
flight of their neighbours a pair of breeding Eastern Galahs (Eolophus
roseicapillus), the results were, two pair of very bloodied, sore and sorry pairs
of Galahs! The catch has never been opened by any cockatoo since I had
built the flights in the mid 1960,s.
I guess any of these antics really only mirror the natural exuberance of
cockatoos in general, take for instance the Sulphur Cresteds of Canberra and
their ability to undo the drop down diffusers on the pole top street lights! I had
the opportunity one day in the "bosses time" to watch this, "wanton
destruction" in action. The Sulphur alights a top of the street light, checks his
surroundings, "pigeon toed duck waddles" up to the front of the light on top,
then leans over to undo the retaining spring/clip, thus dropping the street
lights diffuser, into its swing down position, then the bird reaches down a
second time, grabs one side of the rubber seal with "his" bill, throws "himself"
over backwards, "bungies" until the recoil from the seal desists, then drops
free and flies away then to return repeat the performance on the second
rubber seal! These Sulphurs keep the Australian Capital Territories relevant
electrical authorities employed refitting the diffusers to the lights as by
removing the double seal the diffuser falls free! I have a bit of a "snicker" to
myself as I drive around Canberra and see the diffuser and rubbers from the
street lights hanging earthwards! Or sometimes spot he perpetrator in the act
of actual “Bungie Bouncing”!
My cockatoos will upturn their water bowls often as soon as I have just
cleaned and replenished the dish with fresh water, the birds do this with a
glean of cheek in their eye. I often wonder when I mutter blasphemes at them
wether they get as much enjoyment out of that as the "half cut" human males
in the pubs back in the seventies "performing the Solo Man" by purchasing a
full schooner of beer and upending the entire contents over their heads to the
cheers of their mates!
Now a recent addition to my flock are a pair of Northern Territory Shortbilled
Corellas Cacatua sanguinea, what I believe to be “super intelligent birds”, they
will “flip” their stainless water dish, and toss it up and down the concrete
aviary floor. From the house it sounds like the inmates of Alcatraz running the
metal cup up and down the bars, they also have undone the Tek screws
holding their perch holders to the corrugated aviary walls, the bracket is also
thrown about the aviary or simply dropped in their water dish! They even
remove the retaining nuts and washers from the ladder in their PVC nest box!
To top that they have undone the nuts on the bolts that form the pivot point for
the for their front door mounted swinging coop cup retainer, I purposely turned
the bolts around with the nuts on the outside of all the aviaries, in a hope of
stopping this happening! None of the other Cockies have worked it out yet!
“Super intelligent birds”, well imagine with some training what these birds
could achieve!
Charlie (The Sulphur Crested) also quickly learnt to call a poddied bull calf
that was bucket raised well over a decade ago, as the bull calf was called to
his bucket of milk at feed time. Charlie would join in the calling (or Charlie
often realised that it was bull calf feed time and start calling at the appropriate
time with out prompting). This got to the stage where the bull calf named
Byamee (pronounced Be-armee) was "front and centre" often before his milk
was even mixed, sniffing around Charlies cage looking for his hand out! The
bird was able to imitate my wife's voice to a tee! Later the cockatoo would join
in the calling if my wife called her bull for a feed! Funnily enough it wasn’t for
milk in later days!
At one time I attempted to mate Charlie to a hen Sulphur Crested named
"Howard", she calls herself in a mournful drawn out "Howard!", It didn’t take
long before the rest of the flock was calling as she did!
Two of Charlies younger brothers come to mind, I customised one to say
"Hello Henry", as he was going to my friend and mate Henry in Queensland,
the bird arrived at the end of his flight to the "Sunshine State" and when
released from his shipping container by his new owner, straight up uttered
"Hello Henry". My life long friend was not only very surprised but very
impressed as well!
A second one of Charlies’ younger brothers went to another friend of mine
and he was named "Lucifer" after the little fire lighter, I guess! Apparently this
young Sulphur developed quite a vocabulary. Knowing his new owner
probably picked up a few "flowery" terminologies, with a female Kiwi accent!
His new keeper was a “Kiwi Lady”
In the last twelve months I have passed Charlie onto a family that has children
which is more in line with Charlies upbringing and they report not only has he
settled in well but continually calls “Ray”, had me beat for months then I
remembered that I acquired a pair of Short Billed Corellas off a bloke named
Ray, Charlie had obviously picked the call up off the Corellas!
The father of these Sulphurs, now well over forty has amassed quite a back
ground of sounds and vocabulary some of it dating back to his very early
years! I remember as a young bird he would imitate my late fathers whistle to
summons the sheep dogs. The cockatoo had Dad down pat!
What would transpire was this that Cockie would whistle the dogs, with the
dogs coming right up to his aviary in the backyard at my parents place. They
would then sniff around the aviary, actually sniffing through the aviary mesh at
ground level and get their noses bitten by Cockie for their trouble. With the
dog startled and off wailing in pain, the Cockatoo would throw his head back
and "Laugh", don't ask me where the association with laughing human like at
his prank came from! The strange thing with the ritual was that the dogs
would be repeatedly caught out! I wonder which "beast" was the more
intelligent?
One particular portion of the old fellows’ vocab is the oft repeated "Hello" or
"Hello Cockie" in the voice of my late Aunt Bessie. She used to spend time
talking to the birds when ever she used to visit or was looking after us as kids.
The part of this "mimic", that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up
is that my Aunt passed away in January 1977! (Over Thirty years ago!)
Also this bird hates any human under a metre in height, he obviously has
memories of the days when I was involved in showing birds, I would take my
show team to Agricultural shows in the early portion of each show season.
Then later the same show team went onto the bird shows! It was in the early
part of each season that the Cockatoo developed his resentment for children.
You see kids armed with "Dagwood Dog Sticks" just cannot help themselves
when it comes to poking that caged cockatoo, right in the old bread basket,
unfortunenatly the Cockatoos are usually placed at kids eye level! (The larger
birds and cages were placed low due to their weight and size).
Though he rarely sees a child these days when ever one turns up he “fires”
straight up! I might mention here that it is well over thirty years since this bird
was involved in exhibition! I remember more than one "concerned parent"
reprimanding me about the vicious cockatoo in that cage, to which I explained
in soft low tones that I had already warned their offspring not to antagonise
the cockatoo because he will bite, "Oh yeah see how he likes this" with
another poke of the old Dagwood Dog Stick often letting the fingers too close
to the cage and "wamo" blood was soon flowing! Kid screaming blue murder!
Served them right I reckon, as mostly I had warned their parents to watch
their kid, "Ah he'll be right!" Then of course the old Cockie was the master of
disguise, leaning into the corner of his cage he would give some kids the old
gentle eye, saying "Hello Cockie" softly, in this ready for a scratch pose entice
kids and some older people to place fingers within his reach, same result!
Some years ago I hosted an aviary visit with a bus load of interstate
aviculturalists, I addressed the group from the top of a mound of dirt, (being
proud to show off the collection I had amassed over my lifetime) introducing
myself and asking any visitor under a metre tall (ie kids) to avoid the Cockatoo
in the first flight! Moments later whilst mingling with my visitors and answering
questions I came across "Little Johnny" poking stick and finger into the old
Sulphurs flight. Blood soon flowed; you just cannot warn some people! The
old fellow threw back his head and laughed as he had done all those years
before with the dogs! One day I was near the old Sulphurs flight, and he
called "Mum", not my kids but this Little Johnny! Another mother, another time
and era!
(I may take the liberty here to mention that that particular child caused more
than his share of grief to his fellow Aviary Inspecting Bus Travellers on that
trip, I got the drum of one of the other people that where on the same bus
several years later)
Then there was the Sulphur that I "inherited" from a mate that no longer had
time to care for him. This bird would incessantly call "Mark" my mates’ name,
exactly as did his mother had done for years whilst this cockatoo was still
under the previous owners care! This calling went on for years!
Kimba was another sulphur cock that I inherited; this bird would imitate the
noise a chook makes when she has just laid an egg, the WA Longbills
“pounced” onto that noise real quick!
Most of my cockatoos emit a modified "wolf whistle" when they see me. Its not
that I am all that pretty (as anyone knowing me will testify) but it’s my way of
letting them know I am coming around a blind corner or from out of their sight
range at feed time. Therefore they associate my presence with food and
respond with what I warn them with at feed time! That is the whistle I use!
As I said above the Longbilled Corella group are particularly quick to pick up
verbalisation and imitate sounds. In the main its this collective group that
mimic the local Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans)population albeit in a
much harsher and louder voice as well as that the local Magpies (Gymnorhina
tibiicen) cop their own back, even down to imitating the begging of the Magpie
chicks complete with flapping wings. One cock Western Longbill I have greets
me with "How yer goin'" or "Whats yer Doin'", a direct throw back at my
attempts to distract this particularly aggressive fellow whilst I service his
enclosure and or check the progress of his eggs or offspring! (After all the
years of almost successful avoidance of his clutches he occasionally gets the
"crunch" on me. Usually as I flick a handful of sprouts into his coop cup, that is
when he is raising chicks!)
I also had another fully imported cock, (from the Western Australia) WA
Longbill that had a complete repertoire which included in order, knocking (as
in on a door), "Is anybody there?", next the sounds of a terrier dog yapping
and galloping down what sounds like a hallway, then there’s a whistle while
you wait type scenario, followed by "Come on have a go, have a go you
bastard!" This cockatoo was fairly aggressive obviously antagonised in a past
life at his former keepers front or back door! But "by the same token" this
particular bird would dance and whistle and could put on a real show!
Unfortunately this cock bird broke the eggs his mate laid, so I sold him onto a
country based cockatoo breeder who was given that knowledge and was
willing to try this pair, in flight from Brisbane to Bundaberg he was the
entertainment for the passengers I was told, those days the bird could be
placed at the back of the passenger compartment!
Also another cock bird of this cockatoo subspecies (the finger hanger) I had
must have come from either a smoker or someone that coughed and sniffed a
lot. Either that or he very quickly picked up on my very own sniffs and
probably coughs induced by doing the early morning aviary rounds in the fog
and frost of our cold Winters mornings, which is mostly in the dark!
Again collectively its this Longbilled Corella group, mostly birds I have bred
and hand raised, that would start making a sound (a chuck-chuck-chuck)
when I approached their aviaries at feed time. It took me some time to catch
onto what they where imitating. When the penny finally dropped, I realised
that they where simply imitating my tossing their sprouted seed about as I
approached their aviaries mixing the seed in the plastic bucket.
I was involved in an exchange of cockatoos once, the deal was I received
Cockatoos from the Northern Territory,(Kuhli Galahs) in exchange for an
aviary bred unrelated surgical sexed pair of Eastern Longbilled Corellas, the
exchanging cockatoos passed each other in opposing flights! I phoned the
gentleman after deal was complete and asked what he thought of his new
birds, he was ecstatic the cock Longbill talked a real bonus to him! No doubt
the Corella was picking speech up off his neighbouring aviary inhabitants!
My twenty eight year old Major Mitchell (Cacatua leadbeateri) hen, says "Hello
Cockie" sometimes in a low voice when she is about to grab you during the
breeding season! Also at one stage I had one of my aviary bred Gang Gang
(Callocephalon frimbriatum) hens hand raised and she very clearly said "Hello
Cockie"! Now I have a Short Billed Corella hen that as soon as the “morning
feeding round floodlight is turned on” calls out very loudly a repeated “Hello”
These examples, of hens plus Howard the hen Sulphur and the fact that my
hen West Aussie Longbilled Corella hens will "talk their heads off", may dispel
fears that some people have that hen cockies won't talk, the females in my
collection are mostly on par with there male counterparts, I have a real
problem when a prospective purchaser of a pet cockatoo will say “No I don’t
want a hen, they won’t talk”, hens actually will often make better pets than
their male counterparts, this brings me to another hen cockatoo that I had, a
hybrid in fact! A cross between a Little Corella (Cacatua sanguinea) an
Eastern Galah, if you whistled "Pop goes the weasel" ,she would dance up
and down on the spot on her perch and whistle with you! Hen you ask? Well
she had Galah hen red irises and at the time I had a cock Major Mitchell that
was paying her a lot of attention! Talking about Mitchells, I lost a hen from a
breeding pair once and the remaining cock, son of the old hen, was in a flight
on his own and during recent aviary refurbishment was held in a "cockies
cage" on the bottom lawn at the house. I always kept thinking to myself that
this bird is upset a lot, always alarm screeching you probably all know that
Mitchell screech! As the cage was out of sight of the house, so during one of
his outbursts one day, I decided to investigate from behind some bushes!
Culprits! Two of last seasons WA Galah cocks that I had hand raised and
where keeping the Mitchell company but in their own cage, these two birds
also have a grip on the Crimson Rosella voice as well as the noises made by
the Top Knot Bronzewing Pigeons (Ocyphaps lophotes), that also feed around
the aviaries!
At one stage I was fortunate to host a visit from a West Australian
aviculturalist who told me about selling a Major Mitchell cock to a friend,
apparently on the way home with the cockatoo the friend went to see his girl
friend. Walking back to his car with him the girl friend asked 'Who is in the car
with you? "No one!" "But somebodies in there and talking" "No there’s nobody
in there!" "Oh the bird!" Neither seller nor purchaser where aware that the
Mitchell actually talked!
Once during aviary refurbishment I became aware of another mimic the
cockatoos were performing, I had been using electric drills and "Tek" screwing
iron onto flight frames, thus I was not surprised to hear what I thought was
one of them imitating either of those functions, I was packing up late one
afternoon when I heard the utterance! So I got myself in a position to try and
detect the culprit, I was in view of Charlie (the Sulphur), an Eastern Longbill
cock, the old Mitchell cock and Schooner my '92 bred Gang Gang cock. There
it was again, "Zist" four birds stone faced as you like! It was one of these four,
they where not mimicking the drill/screwing at all but thought it was time I
operated the new timer recently installed for their overhead misting system. It
was the motor on the mister system timer one of these birds where copying!
(Sometimes I had actually operated the mister at the end of a days work on
the aviaries; the birds must have associated my packing up with shower time)
I still do not know which bird is the culprit!
A couple of other odd stories here, I had related to me the tale of the Little
Corella that had the whole family running for the phone! So annoyed was the
families son that he repeatedly ran through his mobile phones repertoire in
front of the bird, and gave it the ultimatum, "If you think your so smart have a
go at these!"
Recently a gentleman phoned for some advice on cockatoos and was telling
me about the Sulphur that had moved into his yard and began feeding with his
chooks and was obviously an "escapee" or "discardee", from nearby. So
being such a friendly bird he decided to relocate some of his own birds and
give the cockatoo a new home. Then after all this effort he was talking to a
lady from down the road, who informed him "That you have my Cockie!",
"How do you know he's yours?" he asked. "Rings like our telephone" was the
answer. He reluctantly handed the bird over! Why did the lady wait so long,
and could the cockatoos mimics be "Proven in court"?
Of course you all know of the swearing cockatoo, their keeper can never
understand "their language" or whose responsible for teaching them those
horrible words, the words that are almost always used whilst the keeper is
trying too impress visitors. These people never check themselves!
Then their was the late Charlie Gs' Sulphur that would imitate the starter
motor of his Datsun 120Y, every time you started your car in his drive, I never
knew wether the bird changed models or not!
So the answer to any one that may ask "Do your Cockies talk?" is "Yes", but I
am not sure what you will get out of them, and with obvious long term
memories, from how far back they may throw something at you! From the
above you will probably be able to see, that with some little perseverance and
time your Cockatoos could be not only taught to talk but to perform some
tricks as well!
Obviously to those of you readers that keep the larger parrots this sort of
behaviour will be "Old News", but I hope you enjoy reading this and get a
laugh out of it as well!
A sad footnote, old Byamee passed a way a few Januarys back, but not
before he came up to the house yard "to say goodbye", first to my wife where
he solicited a small feed of lucerne chaff, then down to the aviaries where I
was doing the afternoon rounds, he stood for awhile chewing his cud as I
stroked his chin and chatted to him, he casually wandered off down the track
to camp for the night, nothing unusual in that, I got up the next morning to see
him laying on the track obviously dead with a leg in the air. Intuition?s
This bull and his brother Warragul where bucket reared in the yard and either
one or both would visit and feed on the lawn and then attempt to camp under
the same bushes that they easierly fitted under as calves, they had no
comprehension of the fact that they had got bigger and that the tree has still
the same height off the ground. On more than one occasion whilst we had
visitors a bull would "cruise passed" the lounge room window, or be seen
casually feeding on the lawn. One comment made by one of our rural guests,
when the bulls where on the lawn, naturally as this lad could express himself
"Ah lawnmowers!"
Once whilst we where away my mother was feeding all things great and small,
she was bending over getting chook feed out of a bag in the carport, next
thing she is aware of, was a great bulls head under her arm head in the bag!
Byamee had arrived to see what was for dinner! Mum was beside herself if
you know what I mean, the bull was extra good at the silent approach!
Byamee never really settled after we sold Warragul the two bulls if separated
would contact call day and night, and Byamees calls where kept up for ages
after his brother left! Tell me animals "are stupid"!