I'm a PIGEON?!

[MineralDiva]

I've never seen it, no. 

[Venus193]

If Animaniacs is still on the air, they're in that.  They're a trio of NYC pigeons who hang out on a statue of Martin Scorcese and answer to the Godpigeon.

[MineralDiva]

LOL  Ohhh yes!  I have seen it!  Very funny!

[Gigi]

Be glad you don't live in Cincinatti.  They have a city employee, an official pigeon shooter to deal with the pigeon overpopulation that was befouling the famous fountain area in downtown. 

We were living there when this headline appeared in the newspaper.  "City hires official Pigeon Shooter".
Imagine the hilarity this caused in my Dad's family when I sent everyone copies of the article.  My very refined grandmother had euphemisims for most bodily functions and parts. Anyone experiencing flatulence was "shooting pigeons".

[Venus193]

That just made me remember the pigeons I saw in Seville when I was on vacation in 1993.  They were all white.  I commented on that to my dentist who joked "All it would probably take is one of ours to ruin the whole thing."

On his honeymoon his bride commented on the huge flock of pigeons in the Piazza San Marco and the tour guide joked, "Well, this place is Catholic; no birth control for the pigeons either."

[MineralDiva]

LOL  You all crack me up!  I'll keep an eye out for people with rifles!

[ganjin]

I LOVE this thread!!

Thank goodness our macaw says mostly "food" words---he'd kiss your feet for a "frenchy fry" and cookie is macaw heaven.

I always know in Summer when the chipmunks and squirrels are scavenging for his dropped food and treats under his outdoor cage---he starts talking to them like they're our Granddog:

"Biddee!!    Bidd--dee!!   C'mere!"

And he lures them down out of the tree with the voice I use to call them for their treat:   "C'mon, Dolling!!"

And nobody can TELL me that he doesn't know what he's saying; lots of books and articles quote that they just repeat by rote.   Bosh!   He knows, "Let's Dance" and will join in with "C'mon!!    Getcha ARMS up!!"  

He reaches for a bite, grabs on, and says "Ya Got It?"   And if it drops, he says, "Uh, Oh!!"

He knows no swear words, but every now and then he bursts into a jibber-jabber in very loud, angry syllables---in MY voice

[Chivewarrior]

My theater teacher's bird, Juba, says "Hello!" and that's all. I've actually had whole conversations with Juba consisting solely of the world hello. I'm not sure what kind she is.

There was one in a story I read that was allowed to watch way too much TV with his former owners, and would say things like "Long distance! It's the next best thing to being there" at very annoying moments.

[Gigi]

My brother's family had a macaw for a while.  It drove them crazy imitating sirens.  It also learned to imitate SIL's voice when she called the kids.  It got so that they would ignore her thinking it was the silly bird.  One of his favorite's was  "Matt, (nephew's name) take out the garbage!"

[Twik]

And nobody can TELL me that he doesn't know what he's saying; lots of books and articles quote that they just repeat by rote.   Bosh!   He knows, "Let's Dance" and will join in with "C'mon!!    Getcha ARMS up!!"   

He reaches for a bite, grabs on, and says "Ya Got It?"   And if it drops, he says, "Uh, Oh!!"

I remember reading once about a couple who had a very talkative, but well-mannered, parrot. One time they had a visitor, and were regaling him with stories of how clever the bird was.

The visitor was not impressed, claiming any impression of appropriate response was just coincidence, nothing more. As far as the bird knew, it was just making noises, not talking. He went over to the cage and started telling the bird, "You don't know what I'm saying, do you? YOu're just a dumb animal. You stupid ugly ..."

The bird opened an eye at him, and snapped "Kiss my ***." He'd never said that before, and never repeated it afterwards.

The man stormed out of the house, saying he wouldn't stay in a house where guests were insulted!

[SunShineTiger]

I've been reading the forums for a few days, but I just had to register and post when I saw this.

My cousin has a talking bird who also "knows" what he's saying.  For example:
-Whenever the phone rings, the bird will say, "Hello?  Hey, how ya doin?"
-My cousin has a dog named Cookie, who often gets out of the house when he's not supposed to, and my cousin will call him to come back.  So, sometimes, when she opens the door, the bird will call, "Cookie!  Coookie!"
-My cousin also has a cat.  One day, the cat was staring intently at the bird cage.  The cat eventually jumped up onto the back of the couch and started pawing at the bird cage, and the bird just said, "Sheeeit, man, whatchoo want?"

[MineralDiva]

Ohhhh yes!  They definitely know what they're saying!

A couple winters ago, we ran out of propane.  There is no natural gas here, it's all propane.  So when the tank is nearly empty...you'd better be able to re-fill it, or you'll be outta luck.  It's not inexpensive, either.

Mr. Diva read me the riot act for days, because I'd let the tank run out, and couldn't afford to re-fill it for a couple of weeks, until my next check arrived.

I finally got more propane.  But no sooner was the tank filled, than the electricity went out!  (Yes, I'd paid the bill.  It was a power outage.)

Mr. Diva went ballistic.  In the middle of his diatribe, a little voice pipes up from the bird room.  "We got proPAAANE?"  It was Sydney, my African Grey.  Mr. Diva stopped in mid-rant and started laughing.  "Yes, Sydney.  We've got propane!"

She never said it before.  Nor has she said it since. 

Another time, we had to be away for about a week.  I had a friend come in to take care of the birds and four-leggers.  It was shortly after we'd moved to this house. 

When we got back, I went into the bird room to say hello to Sydney and Ripley.  Sydney stiffened and looked straight at me and said, "WHAT's going on?  WHERE you go?"  In a tone that I swear, if she could've put her hands on her hips, that would have been all that was missing!

She'll also ask "Can I come out?" when she wants out of her "house" to be with us.  Now I've never said that to her.  It's always been, "You wanna come out, Syd?"  Nor has she ever been taught "Where you go?"  She's always heard, "Where did  ___ go, Sydney?" 

SHE converted it correctly to "Can I come out" and "Where YOU go?"  Scary!

[Xanthia, Maker of fine Tin-foil hats since 2007]

Ohhhh yes!  They definitely know what they're saying!

A couple winters ago, we ran out of propane.  There is no natural gas here, it's all propane.  So when the tank is nearly empty...you'd better be able to re-fill it, or you'll be outta luck.  It's not inexpensive, either.

Mr. Diva read me the riot act for days, because I'd let the tank run out, and couldn't afford to re-fill it for a couple of weeks, until my next check arrived.

I finally got more propane.  But no sooner was the tank filled, than the electricity went out!  (Yes, I'd paid the bill.  It was a power outage.)

Mr. Diva went ballistic.  In the middle of his diatribe, a little voice pipes up from the bird room.  "We got proPAAANE?"  It was Sydney, my African Grey.  Mr. Diva stopped in mid-rant and started laughing.  "Yes, Sydney.  We've got propane!"

She never said it before.  Nor has she said it since. 

Another time, we had to be away for about a week.  I had a friend come in to take care of the birds and four-leggers.  It was shortly after we'd moved to this house. 

When we got back, I went into the bird room to say hello to Sydney and Ripley.  Sydney stiffened and looked straight at me and said, "WHAT's going on?  WHERE you go?"  In a tone that I swear, if she could've put her hands on her hips, that would have been all that was missing!

She'll also ask "Can I come out?" when she wants out of her "house" to be with us.  Now I've never said that to her.  It's always been, "You wanna come out, Syd?"  Nor has she ever been taught "Where you go?"  She's always heard, "Where did  ___ go, Sydney?" 

SHE converted it correctly to "Can I come out" and "Where YOU go?"  Scary!

Two weekends ago I was watching an amazing documentary on peoples connections with their animals and vice versa.  One of the experiments was with a woman and her parrot (I think a McCaw, the red ones with the green tip wings). 

The woman went into another room, and was handed a large envelope with photos and was filmed viewing the photos, and a cameraman stayed with the bird.  something like 40% of the time when the woman looked at a photo, the bird would comment on what the woman was looking at even though she was in a different room (I do not remember if it was on Animal Planet or discovery channel).  It was really funny when the woman pulled out a photo of a very nice looking male model with his shirt off and the bird whistled and said something like "tummy tummy, nice smile" and whistled again.

It was a very interesting show.

[MineralDiva]

LOL  They are amazing creatures! 

My Blue and Gold, Ripley, loves to steal food from plates...even if she has her own, with the same thing on it.  She once dove beak first, into a plate of spaghetti and said, "Ohhhh!  It's good!  It's hot!"

Sydney always asks, "Is it good?" when she sees us eating something.

[housewife2k]

There's been some suggestion that getting a feathered friend might help Middleson, something about the repitition, and Middleson's inkling to talk to pets like they are people. (Not saying pets are not people, but he will converse in clear language to a dog, cat, fish or rodent, while shunning us) Being we are pet people, Hubby and I are looking into it.

My H.S. music teacher had a bird she would occasionally bring to class, the school put a top to it after a student complaint. Bird would listen to soloes and comment. "Good", "nice", "good tone", etc.. but for one girl, it was always "Bad...needs a bucket." She eventually got frustrated and reported the bird to the office for harrasment.