Your Bird is Smarter Than You Think
In addition to food, water, shelter, rest, and social activity, your bird needs intellectual activity to keep healthy. The only way your bird can get this mental stimulation is through training and play time. Research has found that a bird can solve a problem by insight, similar to a small child.
Parrots are considered to be the smartest species of birds. They can learn to tell the difference between shapes, colors, objects, and people. The African Grey Parrot is one example of a bird that has the intelligence of a three to four year old child.
Birds by nature can be very resourceful creatures. It is common to see a bird lying walnuts on a railroad track to crack them open. Cockatoos have been known to clips sticks of wood in order to scratch their bodies. If you watch your bird you will see different ways they use their ropes, toys, pacifiers, and other things. You will come to find that those items may have different uses.
If you are interested in speaking birds, they have come along way. Once parrots were the only birds to speak, now there are many other birds that can speak. Try encouraging your bird to speak; you can use CDs, tapes, and books to teach speech training. There is one report of an African Grey named Jack who has over 100 word vocabulary, can distinguish both shapes and colors and can understand the difference between big and small things. Alex even tends to put words together to add new phrases to his vocabulary.
Birds in the wild have exceptional memories. In fact they have been known to bury thousands of seeds and are able to recover 90% of them. It has been considered that they may have a special portion of their brain that allows them to accomplish things. Jack, the parrot we mentioned that lives right down the street from us here in Champaign can tell you the color of corn, even when he has no corn to look at.
Though it is debatable, scientists are now stating that birds have the right make up for emotions. They have a limbic system, a specialized part of the brain, which is found in humans and mammals, and is necessary for emotion to occur. Bird owners seem to think they can tell the mood of their birds, and have said this for years. Research is now determining how true this is and the possible impact it may have.
Birds do many things just for the fun of doing them. Things like frolicking in their bird bath, watching the splash by dropping something in the water, doing somersaults. Should you provide the right interactive toy, they will show interest for hours.
Research is showing many things that you as a bird owner probably already know. Your bird is a smart companion and you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to enjoy that!
Source:ezinearticles.com
