Hi guys!
We're here at Animal Wonders and today we're going to talk about Chopsticks.
Now, he's a Quaker Parrot, um, but I want to talk mostly about him in general and why
we have him, what makes him so special.
So...
Hehe, he's trying to tell you all about himself.
These guys come from South America but they are kept as pets a lot.
He's a rescue; he was someone's pet and he ended up at animal control and animal control
didn't know what to do with him so they sent him to Animal Wonders.
And Chopsticks is really neat because he has just this amazing personality.
He's chomping on his little seed right now using his foot to help him eat.
Two toes in the front, two toes in the back, called zygodactylous.
His favorite thing to do is interact with people and he bonded to me about a week after
he came in.
And every week since then he's said something new.
Like, human words.
Say chop chop?
Chopstick: Chop chop!
Good bird.
Chopstick: Thank you.
You're welcome.
Say good morning!
Chopstick: Good morning!
Hahahahaha
Chopstick: Hahahahaha
You're a silly bird.
Can you say silly bird?
Chopstick: Silly bird
[Jessi giggling]
[Chopstick chuckling]
So let's talk about this mimicking thing that he does.
You know, you've heard him say some pretty cute things.
And-- okay, so, why do they mimic?
Well, a lot of people say, "Well, they mimic because they can."
Well, yes they can, they have vocal cords similar to ours so they can make these different
sounds.
But why do they do it?
What's the behavior behind it?
And the behavior behind it would go back to how they communicate with their own species
in the wild.
So these guys are monogamous, meaning they only have one mate for their entire life.
And they want to make sure they're always in contact with that mate.
So they're going to form this really neat form of communication, like walkie-talkie
or Marco Polo, but they're gonna mimic the same noise back and forth.
So they're gonna go, you know, "pretty bird," and the other's gonna say "pretty bird" a
mile away and they're gonna get closer and closer and be able to hear that call and they're
gonna come up with their own unique communication back and forth.
Every morning you walk in and say "Good Morning!" and they're gonna start saying "good morning"
and they're gonna associate it with when they first see you.
So they don't actually understand the meaning of "good morning" like we would, but they
do pair it together with certain situations.
So if every night you turn off the light and say "goodnight," they're gonna say "goodnight."
And actually he says "bye bye birdie" but he only says it when I turn out the light
at night.
They actually have the ability to pair different words from different situations to create
something that would make sense in context.
It's not just his mimicking that makes him really special.
He came in a little bit traumatized so as you can see underneath here he has some feather
plucking going on and so there's some sort of stressor in his life.
You know, he lost his home, he was in a strange place with a bunch of dogs for a while but
then he came to a brand new place at Animal Wonders and he met a lot of new birds, so
that's all kind of brand new and can be stressful too.
Now, he's pretty neat because he's bonded to me so closely that he will let me groom
him.
Can I give you some groomings?
He kinda likes it and he kinda doesn't.
He wants me to get in there, give him some pets, but at the same time he doesn't want
me touching him too hard.
Can I give you some scratches?
Mmmh, scratches.
[Giggling] You like it but you don't at the same time!
He does little dances.
Can you do the Quaker Dance?
Chopsticks: Do the Quaker.
Do the Quaker Dance?
Chopsticks: Do the Quaker.
Yeah, yeah?
So the other thing is we train our birds to sit on our finger and sometimes we'll make
extra quick movements and we won't think about about that they're sitting on our finger as
a perch.
So we like to train our birds to let us put our thumb over their toes so if we do make
a quick movement, they're not gonna be falling off their perch.
But Chopsticks here hates his toe touched.
So he's-- when I put my thumb on his toe he tries his best to get his toe out of there.
He's actually being a gentleman about it because he's not biting my finger, he just goes over
and he goes, "How do I get out of this?"
So he has a thinking mind, where he tries to maneuver his way out of a situation.
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Chopsticks: Thank you.
No, seriously, subscribe.