Uke soothes the savage parrot!

Thanks for this!
How wonderful to find such a cool way to connect with your parrot. Soon he'll be part of your regular gigs.
 
wdonley said:
I'd noticed whenever I broke out the uke, my Amazon parrot would climb off his cage, and come sit with me. Thought it was a quirk. ]
Click to expand...

That's funny. I too have noticed that when I'm playing and my window is open, robins, sparrows, doves etc. will sit on my fence and listen, sometimes quite intently. They turn their heads from side to side, to hear better I think. Sometimes they jump off the fence and walk closer to my window. The birds are obviously intrigued. I play guitar too, but it seems like the birds are attracted to the sound of the ukulele more. Perhaps its the softer tones of the uke that remind them of their own songs.
 
Hmmm....My ukes just seems to agitate my wife's Senegal (could very well be my playing!). But he sees me as competition for her affection anyways.
 
My little terrier likes to sit on my lap when I'm playing. She sleeps right through most songs unless it's got a lot of energetic strumming. :)
 
OTOH, when I play my drums, the dogs head for the back bedroom's walk-in closet. Can't say I blame them. Little difference in volume between the uke and drums. And I'm a relatively quiet jazz guy...........
 
My red bellied parrot (similar to a Senegal) often bobs her head when I play, and she sometimes vocalizes when I sing. If I ever figure out how to record myself playing, we're planning on performing a duet.
 
What a great story, thanks for sharing. I have a one legged canary who loves it when I play the ukulele. He gets as close as possible to listen. My dog instead ignores the ukulele completely, although she is always at my side when I play.
 
This whole thread has me convinced that my next pet has to be a bird. My friend who also plays uke has a budgie that sings along with us when we play.

My elderly curmudgeon of a cat, on the other hand, leaves the room when the uke comes out. I try not to take it personally.
 
janeray1940 said:
This whole thread has me convinced that my next pet has to be a bird. My friend who also plays uke has a budgie that sings along with us when we play.

My elderly curmudgeon of a cat, on the other hand, leaves the room when the uke comes out. I try not to take it personally.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you have the time for one. Budgies (aka parakeets) can do fairly well alone in a cage if they have lots of toys and a mirror to talk to, but larger hookbills really need a lot of attention to be happy. Most parrots are like having a three year old that never grows up. They need constant interaction, and when they don't get it they can develop self destructive behaviors like feather plucking. I used to work in a veterinary hospital that specialized in birds, and I can't tell you how many poor parrots I've seen that were brought in for "medical" conditions that they had that were really just a sign of loneliness and neglect. They are wicked smart too. Check this out:
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/02/alex-the-parrots-last-experiment-shows-his-mathematical-genius.html
I saw Irene Pepperberg give a talk about Alex when I was in graduate school. It blew me away.
 
That's proof of parrot's intelligence. My dog has stopped leaving the room lately. Either she's getting deaf or I'm getting better.

I'd like to think it's the latter
 
pepamahina said:
Just make sure you have the time for one. Budgies (aka parakeets) can do fairly well alone in a cage if they have lots of toys and a mirror to talk to, but larger hookbills really need a lot of attention to be happy.
Click to expand...

I'd definitely go for a budgie if this idea ever became a reality :) The fact that a parrot would likely outlive me is reason enough not to have one. Meanwhile I'll just visit the local bird shop from time to time and marvel at the parrots! Wow.
 
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