Ok I'll be honest, I have not understood beak grinding until the other day. I have asked a few questions about this in the past and accepted the answer given, but never understood the mechanism. My Eckie always made really loud beak grinding sounds and it comically sounds like an "oink". Anyways, I finally (last post on the subject) accepted the fact that this noise was in fact the beak grinding sound everyone else had been referring to (I had no other reference), but I still had no idea how the sound was produced. Well mystery solved! I'm sure this is obvious to most on here, but to a newcomer, especially one with a limited knowledge of parrot physiology, this can be quite a perplexing sound. I am posting this in the hope that some other newcomer will find this helpful.
I was taking a nap on the couch the other day and Lada was snuggled up with me. She was laying on top of my chest/shoulder snuggled up against my face and from this perspective I could see right inside the underside of her top beak. Had she not started making her oink noises, I would have never discovered this. Thankfully she started oinking away and I got an up close look at the exact source of the sound. Originally I erroneously thought the sound originated inside their throat which looking back makes NO sense as its called "beak grinding" lol... Anyways, the source of the sound comes from a washboard like texture inside her upper beak. She uses her lower beak and starting from the tip, runs her lower beak up the inside of the upper beak running along that washboard texture producing the sound. Again, I am sure this is obvious and common knowledge to most of the parronts out there, but for me, it was yet another new piece of information that hopefully will answer someones question in the future.
I don't have any pictures or diagrams so if anyone can provide a pic of the inside of their parrots beak or if anyone finds a picture online, please post it here for reference.
Cheers
I was taking a nap on the couch the other day and Lada was snuggled up with me. She was laying on top of my chest/shoulder snuggled up against my face and from this perspective I could see right inside the underside of her top beak. Had she not started making her oink noises, I would have never discovered this. Thankfully she started oinking away and I got an up close look at the exact source of the sound. Originally I erroneously thought the sound originated inside their throat which looking back makes NO sense as its called "beak grinding" lol... Anyways, the source of the sound comes from a washboard like texture inside her upper beak. She uses her lower beak and starting from the tip, runs her lower beak up the inside of the upper beak running along that washboard texture producing the sound. Again, I am sure this is obvious and common knowledge to most of the parronts out there, but for me, it was yet another new piece of information that hopefully will answer someones question in the future.
I don't have any pictures or diagrams so if anyone can provide a pic of the inside of their parrots beak or if anyone finds a picture online, please post it here for reference.
Cheers
