Our most talkative guests the “African Grey Parrots”

We are here for your parrots. Squawk & Howl has extended its services to parrot-centric in-house pet sitting to complement the core business of exclusive parrot and bird boarding of the San Francisco Bird Hotel. Pet sitting to its finest. Today we will feature one of our regular guests a very talkative African Grey parrot. Read more about those magnificent creatures.  African-Grey.com

 

We are specialized in the Squawk of Squawk and Howl and emphasize our parrot-centric mindset, were we feel there is a big need for professional pet sitting and bird boarding. Of course we are also looking for the clientele supporting the Howl which usually are the companion animals of the squawkers.

As we get rolling with our blog (slowly but surely) my main goal on the blog is talking about the different species of birds and parrots we care for here in the Hotel and to share some educational information about them. But most importantly we will have fun with our introductions when talking about our tiniest guests of Parotletts to the biggest guests we can accommodate in the Hotel of the size of double yellow naped Amazon.

We are also busy with preparing for the Holidays. It is hard to believe that it is already the first of October and traditionally Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays will be the peak season for pet sitting and bird boarding. We have extended our Hotel and have increased the number of cages so every little, medium sized and large guest will be properly accommodated. Unfortunately we cannot accommodate huge guests like Macaws or Cockatoos. For you guys we gladly come to your house to take care of you there. It is our pleasure to visit you-we just need your booking in advance so we can plan accordingly.

Last week we featured the African Grey Kya who still is looking for a new home. For this week let’s stick with the African Grey parrots, since I just met a very intelligent and talkative young guy named “Alex”.  He is a different Alex than the famous one but very talented in mimicking and confusing humans as much as other birds. Alex is a frequent guest. His human travels a lot but here in the Hotel Alex never experiences a minute of boredom or loneliness.

I am highly impressed by Alex and the fact that he never runs out of energy and ideas. He wakes up in the morning highly alert and interested and talks all day long. His specialty is to imitate human sneezing and coughing.

But lately he fell into an identity crisis since he listened to all other guests and started to imitate the little voices of cockatiels. He also picked up the vocabulary of his neighbors, a bunch of Amazon parrots. All this happened within a couple of days and I wonder if Alex ever “finds” himself again….. a squeaky, soft spoken little voice appears when the cockatiel imitation comes to mind, a loud screechy Mickey Mouse voice is used when he feels like mocking the five Amazons he shares his Hotel room with…. They in turn are just watching him in bewildered wonderment. When the human aspect comes to mind the s

neezing will prevail and the coughing is accompanied by the correct human gestures and mannerism.

According to avian science the African Grey parrot is considered to be one of the most accomplished mimics. They show an incredible ability to mimic people and noisy objects. Usually every species has its own distinguished sound but all I hear from Alex is a kind of a gurgle and the imitation of every which noise he can pick up.  Unlike the Amazon parrots that always display their own voices and are proud to compete in ear shattering screaming matches. Not Alex. He sneezes and coughs and is quite happy with his accomplishments.

 

 

 

I hope to see you next time around when we feature another guest.

 

 

 

About Birgit

I can look back to a wealth of bird care experience having been surrounded by my flock of Amazon parrots for over 15 years. I speak fluently and understand Amazonian, Cockatilian and Toucanian and I am proficient in Budgie talk and African-grey slang. I love them all and I can relate to their moods, desires and needs. It is a pleasure for me to get to know them and to listen to their story telling and individual contributions to the occasional sing-along's in our Hotel.