Bird training human

[tka]

Sharing this with you because it's too funny not to...

I had to be away from home for a couple of nights so my friend, K, helped me out by parrot-sitting Leia. K and Leia have met and Leia is happy to sit on K's head, but this is the first time K has looked after her. Leia's normal bedtime routine is for me to hold a flaked almond by her sleeping perch (which is bolted to the cage door), Leia flies or climbs to her sleeping perch, gets the almond piece and I close the door as she's eating.

When K wanted to get Leia to bed, Leia was on top of the cage. K was a bit unsure whether Leia would go to her perch, so decided to offer an almond piece so Leia was at least on the same side as the perch, then offer an almond piece by the perch so Leia would hop onto it.

Leia had other ideas. She would move to the side of the cage where K was offering an almond piece, take the almond piece...then immediately go to the opposite side. K would offer another almond piece, Leia would take it and immediately go away.

It took K at least ten minutes to work out that the parrot was very carefully manipulating her out of as many almonds as K was willing to part with. Leia was rewarding K juuuuuust enough by going up to her that K would repeat her behaviour in the hope of another reward, which Leia would then reward...

I thought it was beautiful but K is a little freaked out at being played by a parrot.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

Leia is a smart girl!

 

[Familyof12]

The research on these birds didn't really begin until recently (last 50 years) and I believe we still only know a little of what these beautiful fairy like animals can do. I'm positive that they are way smarter than people realize. Just watching my fids, I can tell they are not just going by instinct but learning and teaching each other.

 

[Clueless]

My Amazon, Secret, is currently working on husband.... he thinks he's training the bird.

I'm getting cheap entertainment!

 

[zoo mom]

Parrots are very good trainers.

 

[cassiesdad]

Parrots are very good trainers.

You've now revealed another essential truth about parrots....they don't like their secrets to get out, you know...

 

[tka]

This history of studies of animal intelligence has done animals a disservice, I think. It's tricky to get the balance right between anthropomorphism (seeing animals as human, with human motives and thought/reasoning processes) and adopting a purely behaviourist approach that doesn't allow for interiority.

Then there's the problem of designing tests that don't in some way privilege human reasoning processes - for example, we think manipulating objects around us to get a reward is a sign of intelligence and so we design tests to measure that (used with great effect with corvids), but does that account for animal intelligences that don't prioritise spatial manipulation? What does an animal intelligence look like when it's not an intelligence that humans use or recognise?

I wish I had a better idea of what was going on in Leia's head! It's probably a fascinating place!

 

[Fergus Mom]

What a great story! Was the ten minutes of almond-giving the first night? Ha ha - how many did Leia get the second night?!!!

 

[tka]

Ten minutes of almond giving the first night!

On the second night, Leia put herself to bed at exactly the time she's meant to go to bed. Birds are so strange.

 

[Peachfaced]

My Amazon, Secret, is currently working on husband.... he thinks he's training the bird.

I'm getting cheap entertainment!

You should have recorded it for those days when you need a laugh.

Leia is a smart cookie! Sometimes I have to put myself in the bird's "shoes" to outsmart them. It's harder than you think.