Tell-tale parrot exposes cheating girlfriend

MSNBC ^ | MSNBC

[doc30]

LONDON - Chris Taylor, a 30-year-old British computer programmer, grew suspicious of his live-in girlfriend when his pet parrot began to imitate her saying, “I love you, Gary.”

Ziggy, an 8-year-old African gray parrot, would also make kissing noises whenever the name Gary was mentioned on TV and would mimic Suzy Collins saying, “Hiya, Gary,” every time she answered her mobile phone.

[doc30]

I have one of these parrots and it is amazing how they not only speak, but the size of their vocabulary and their ability to understance the context of what they are saying and when to say it. Sounds like the bird had no problem talking about Gary to his owner CHris. It is sad he got rid of the bird. Many times, the bird will stop talking about something when that something leaves. I also had a cockatiel that the Grey imitated like crazy. When the 'tiel died, the Grey was silent for a month and then never made another cockatiel sound.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1559330/posts

[DooDahhhh]

i,too, have an African Grey named Moses. They are amazing! Go pour yourself a Scothch and he makes the glug, glug sound. I swear you cannot get much by these birds. And talk about a vocabulary, unbelieveable what they can say and at the right time. I agree with you.

[doc30]

Did a title search this story wasn't posted. Your link is a different article (same story), with a different title.

[cvq3842]

They seem like amazing animals. I have read that chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins and parrots (some species) are indeed very, very intelligent - almost in a class by themselves when considered against other animals.

I would love to own one of these birds, but I realize it's not fair to do it if I'm not fully aware of and prepared to make the time commitment. maybe one day . . .

[Blood of Tyrants]

True story: The police go to a house with a warrant for the arrest of a woman accused of forgery. The police knock and anounce they are looking for this person. A man inside says throught the door, "She's not here". A 4 year old voice says, "Yes, she is, daddy. She's in the closet."

[doc30]

Same here. Whenever I go to drink anything, the bird does the same thing - gurgle, gurgle, gurgle. And he makes a sound of me clearing my throat before I even do it. He is picking up something I'm unaware of that makes his prediction accurate. My dog also loves the bird. He hangs out under his stand and catches food the parrot drops!

[Skooz]

My dad used to have a parrot who could EXACTLY duplicate the phone ring. He would then EXACTLY duplicate the sound of the phone being taken off the hook, and my step mom saying "Hello."

[Daralundy]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1559252/posts

Another similar but not identical article on the same topic. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Admin Moderator]

We normally allow reposts of the same story if it's been a long time since the first one was posted and the thread is inactive.

At some point, we draw the line on reposts, but it's a judgment call. We'd rather spend our time generating lightning bolts.

[DooDahhhh]

The spookiest sounds that Moses has made was one dark October evening about dusk I was alone in a huge house with only my computer on and low and behold "someone" was sharpening knives in my kitchen! He only heard that sound one time and then said it to perfection. Scared me to death.

[nuconvert]

LoL

[Cicero]

Gary or no Gary, he should have kept the bird.

[martin gibson]

A thief breaks into a home in the dead of night. As he is burgling through a room he hears a voice behind him in the darkness say "Jesus is watching you".

The burglar turns and shines his flashlight behind him to reveal a parrot on a perch. "Jesus is watching you" the parrot repeats.

"Oh, man..." the burglar says, "here I was getting all worried and now I find it was nothing but a talking bird..."

The parrot looks down to the floor at the large rotwieller sitting at the foot of his perch and says "sic 'em, Jesus".

[Tennessee_Bob]

We'd rather spend our time generating lightning bolts.

Do you guys take specialty orders and do delivery? I know of a backup generator and phone switch system at a certain call center I work at...

[texas_mrs]

We knew some people in San Antonio that had one of these and when it would hear pots and pans in the kitchen it would say "Oh, sh!t!" because thats what the woman of the house usually said while cooking.

It also would call "Here kitty, kitty!" when the cat came in the room. I would love to know what the cat thought about that.

[VRWCmember]

I heard a story about a parrot named Moses before.

This guy was burlarizing a house when he heard a voice say "Jesus is watching you." He stopped, looked around, saw nobody, and got back to filling his sack with valuables. Then he heard the voice again: "Jesus is watching you".
He turned around, shined a flashlight and saw a bird cage. He noticed the parrot, and said "Was that you?"

The parrot responded "Jesus is watching you."

The burglar was irritated and asked the parrot "Who are you?"

The parrot replied "Moses."

The burglar said "What kind of stupid people name a bird 'Moses' anyway?"

The parrot replied "The same kind of people that name their rottweiller 'Jesus'. Sic him Jesus."

[steveo]

but the size of their vocabulary and their ability to understance the context of what they are saying and when to say it.

Agree 100% on that. Our grey 'Bob' will say our cat's name when she comes into the room and then imitate her meow. If I close my office door he says 'goodbye' and then starts doing his telephone ring to get me to come back in.

I have no idea how many words and phrases he knows. Amazing creatures.

[Puppage]

ability to understance

Understance?

[zeugma]

There was a thread here a few months back (that I can't seem to locate) about a parrot that someone has been doing research on. It has a vocabulary of about a 4 year old, and can understand such concepts as "zero", and much other stuff.

Here's an external link for the story. Amazing!