How good is a parrot's long term memory?

[Sarahmoluccan]

Very interesting article by Dr. Pepperberg How Good is a Parrot’s Long-Term Memory? – Pet Birds by Lafeber Co.
In my own experience I've also seen parrots who either like or dislike a person mainly base of their appearance. We had a cockatoo who been moved and rehomed about 5 or 6 times in less than 2 years. The rehoming all occurred within the same extended family and one member in particular was always there when the cockatoo moved. I looked similar to that person as result the cockatoo really disliked me and didn't trust me. It took a long time and lots of treats for him to finally warm to me. While that experience isn't so much about long term memory, it did reinforce the idea to me birds can like or dislike a person base on their memories of similar looking people in their past.

@JLcribber Given Tika's past I wouldn't surprise me if he had post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm curious what you're thoughts are about this

 

[JLcribber]

I have no doubt Tika has a long term memory and some abused birds suffer from PTSD but he's not one of them. He's had it pretty good for the last 15 years. I made a point of removing things like the cage that would have bad memories. I built him an indoor aviary within weeks of arriving.

He has very little stress and does not have any destructive behaviour like plucking. His hormonal surges are nothing like they were 10 years ago. He's a different bird today.

He is just a big confident male trying to manipulate his world to the way he likes it. I do the same.

 

[Brittany0208]

I wish I knew the answer to this. I do believe that Java remembers his previous life, but I don't know if his skittish behavior is part of PTSD or just in his nature since Vasas are known to have a very strong flight response. Since he's only been with me a short time, I don't know if his anxiety is something that will diminish with time or if he'll always be fearful of everything and everyone.

 

[Clueless]

Secret has issues where she reverts to doing loops around the cage.

Thankfully those are decreasing over the years but obviously it is a visual indicator of stress.

I think their memory is obvious. Sometime within the last year I heard a deep guttural voice (words) out of Secret that I had never heard before. Blew me away and kind of scared me.

 

[AutumnRain]

Our DYH Amazon Parrot definitely had a good memory. My mom had to send him to my aunt's house for a while due to my dad's health issues at the time. He stayed mad at her for it and years later, he was still just as angry. She couldn't handle him anymore after that, and if she was anywhere near when he was out with me or my sister, we got bitten. She was the one who dropped him off at my aunt's house, and also the one who brought him back. Before all that, he loved being with her and didn't bite her unless he was hormonal.

 

[JLcribber]

Tika has the most important thing in life. I'm the one suffering here.

 

[cassiesdad]

Interesting read.

It's very interesting on just how good is a parrot's long term memory. Milton loves to be around people...he does favor older men, though. It's an obvious reminder of his first beloved person, an older man. It's just sweet how he'll beeline over to a certain man when we visit nursing homes....Milty will get up on the gentleman's shoulder and almost begin cooing with happiness.

Milty also has that thing that Dr. Pepperberg's Griffin has...he seems to scope out people who have experience with big birds...he wants to interact with them...it's happened that way many times in the past...really something to see...

 

[JLcribber]

Milty also has that thing that Dr. Pepperberg's Griffin has...he seems to scope out people who have experience with big birds...he wants to interact with them.

Tika does that too. I think this is just a matter of a bird person approaches with a more confident energy. Without much wariness. It says safe.

 

[Sylvester]

I know that I have read that you should never mishandle a cockatoo, because they remember forever.

 

[Kenzie]

I sold a bird at my store this most recent summer. She came in the other day, saw me, was leaning off her owner and doing the kissing noises I'd always make at her while she was at my store, and when she was on me, she bit her mom when she tried to get her back! Hard! Safe to say she remembers me