parrot tv

[cimorene]

A few months ago I was suggested a random video of a balcony full of screaming kookaburras on YouTube and posted to ask my Australian flist if that is a normal or expected Australian occurrence, and from the amusing things they kindly told me about Australian bird life I got interested and did a number of searches on YouTube to see the birds in question...

...and since then YouTube's algorithm has been showing me more and more content related to parrots, in a really delightful instance of the same phenomenon that radicalizes people, I assume. (I'm still not really sure why the original screaming kookaburras showed up, though.)

So far, I have hardly seen anything boring related to parrots in any way, so it's all good! I've learned a lot:

• that budgerigars, cockatiels and cockatoos are all members of the parrot family


• that cockatoos and budgies talk too, but the smaller the parrot, the weirder it sounds, and the more like you're hearing someone with a throat injury or through a walkie-talkie


• that cockatoos are amazingly similar to five-year-old humans and they don't just reproduce speech randomly, they use language to communicate, but in a hilariously weird way that is not the way people (or, say, grey parrots) do


• that even budgies can learn enormous vocabularies and construct novel sentences by recombining parts


• that kakapos are parrots too but there aren't nearly enough videos of them

I wouldn't say I'm exactly in parrot fandom, but I'm definitely enjoying watching a lot of parrot content at the moment (which is good, because I've been trying to knit and I have not felt emotionally equal to investing myself in the fates of more fictional characters in dramas).

We got the animal blood tester out today, wanting to try to draw Snookums's first 12-hr blood glucose curve, but only then discovered there was a fourth component we needed to have bought separately (a test solution to calibrate the tester with) and didn't. It should be here in a couple more days.

Comments

[flamebyrd]

I just feel the need to inform you that as I am reading this, the cockatoos that live in the park next door are squawking very loudly. (Probably red tailed black cockatoos.)

I rarely hear kookaburras in the mornings, but I definitely hear a lot of parrots.

[cimorene]

I gather screaming is just kind of a hobby for parrots.

I mean, they're really charming animals, but that's gotta require a bit of adjustment for anybody with ears, to put them inside your house (or potentially right up in your face)...

[used_songs]

I love the notion of parrot fandom.

[cimorene]

Going by You Tube, it's probably a thing. There's at least one cockatiel with merch...

[copracat]

We've got rosellas in the trees next to my work building. Because our windows are reflective they can't see us inside, so they'll sometimes come and hangout on the windowsills. I have a window desk. It's so cool.

[cimorene]

OMG... 😍 do you have an Instagram...?😅

[copracat]

No, the reason they can't see us is also the reason the glass is dark-ish and good pictures are challenging to take. :(

[cimorene]

That is very sad but at least I now know there are plenty of your countrypeople taking pictures of other parrots to look at.

But I really had this great mental image of them in trees preening and making faces in a mirror...

[krait]

I am totally in parrot fandom, so welcome!

My favourites are mostly large species that I can never own, but one day I may find my way to acquiring a Pacific Parrotlet because 1) they are adorable, 2) they have a more managable size and lifespan, and 3) they come in blue and I am 100% weak to blue animals (see also: my icon.)

Kakapos are awesome! There should definitely be more videos of them. I'm super interested in bird communication and language, not just in parrots, and one day I want to write an original novel with an alien species/language that draws from birds.

[cimorene]

I'm now 100% convinced R2D2's language is based on small parrots, but the main question in my mind is which small parrot specifically. And exactly how they did it. I think I remember that a person made the noises...

...though for the most part I think it looks like even small parrots would be a sizeable lifestyle investment. Most budgies and cockatiels look to be about as demanding as my incredibly demanding cat, but less sleepy and noisier.

[krait]

Yes, they are basically the answer to, "What if I had a cat that stayed awake 20 hours a day instead of sleeping 20 hours a day, and then I gave it bullhorn and a set of pruning shears?"

:D

[cimorene]

With some variations like Harley the cockatoo's obsession with knocking over towers of plastic cups. Not exactly UNfeline, but she had a lot more stamina for pure destruction.

[cimorene]

+ now that I've looked up the parrotlet in question YOU SHOULD GET ONE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and start a photoblog.

Maybe not, but they are EXTRA cute. Sort of budgie colors but in different patterns and so tiny and round, like little sparrows! And with those short little tails!!!! I love the random patches of the wild coloration - it's like they've covered their entire body with some avant garde makeup palette...

[krait]

THEY ARE SO CUTE. AND BLUE. My reaction was basically the same as yours when I first discovered them. :D

And from everything I've read, they really are 'a large-parrot personality in a small-parrot body,' which is perfect for my love of large parrots while being unable to handle a lifespan longer than mine...

If I ever do get one I will definitely start a photoblog! (But keep in mind that I also said that about getting cats, yet two years into cat ownership I still have not posted a photo in my own blog, much less started them their own...)

[cimorene]

I haven't seen any videos of them yet, but I will look forward to observing this personality!

[yvannairie]

Man, the Almighty Algorithm does apparently work, for me it just shows the same half a dozen channels over and over because they're the only ones making content I'm interested in :(

[cimorene]

Well, there are a couple of possible factors that could have prompted the connection:

-I'm not only interested in a couple of things; I think of new ideas that I want to look up every now and then and some of them are related to wild animals

-The algorithm also suggests videos that someone it knows is next to you has just watched (like after I showed a video on my phone to a friend when I was at her house, YouTube suggested it to her when she opened hers even though I had location data turned off on my phone and she wasn't logged in; also it regularly suggests things I've just watched to my wife and vice versa)

- Wild animal results from my Flickr, Wikipedia, and Google searches, assuming it has the ability to spy on some or all of those (though again, not kookaburras; I didn't know what they looked like, so that was quite a surprise)

[lazaefair]

Hah! That’s exactly how I fell down the barbershop quartet rabbit hole a couple weeks ago. Don’t know why or how the original video showed up - can’t even remember what it was - but I clicked, and now it’s nothing but four-part harmony all day every day in my suggestions. I’m not sad about it.

You’ve seen the video of the kakapo attempting to mate with Sir David Attenborough, right?

[cimorene]

Hahahaha, I could totally watch some of that! Barbershop quartet style harmony is so unusual in the music I usually listen to, but it's totally fun.

And... no. Um. At least I don't remember it... I would remember that, right? I guess I'll go find that now...

[weconqueratdawn]

I'm a paid-up member of the parrot fandom so I 100% appreciate this post :)

And as a Londoner I can tell you it's common here to have a balcony full of screaming ring-necked parakeets, which is exciting and probably not what visitors to London expect. I get treated to fly-pasts when I'm writing :)

Also, I saw your comment about R2D2 - one of my late lovebirds (also parrots) used to remind me if R2D2 very, very much!! Not just in sound but in movement too - he had a round tummy, a fast clockwork-bird walk and idk, a similar way of expressing curiosity??

[cimorene]

I've mostly thought it about budgies, but also cockatiels some, and I THINK lovebirds are also parakeets? I haven't seen any specific videos of them yet, just bits in compilations.

Our balcony is glassed in because of the cats, but we don't really have any screaming birds here. A bit closer to the water, like in our old flat, you get a lot of seagulls though, which do shriek a fair bit.

[weconqueratdawn]

Hmmmn I don't think lovebirds are parakeets but you're making me doubt, lol. Pretty sure I didn't read that in my research when I ended up with a pair by accident. They don't have long tails (they have short stubby ones and mine used them much like a woodpecker would on a vertical surface) and I think that's usually a characteristic of parakeets - that's all I got :)

The R2D2 noises come in when they're "singing" - they make these little abrupt chirpy-croony sounds, usually when they feel happy or relaxed. Tbh I've never seen a good video of lovebirds doing that - one of mine used to enjoy music and would do it then (his favourites included Bowie's Sound & Vision and Little Richard??).

Bet the cats appreciate that!

[cimorene]

Oh, then they wouldn't be parakeets, you're right. That means long-tailed ones. Budgies seem to do it all the time, and I've seen several cockatiels in videos making beep-boop noises sort of in between snatches of singing in a cute punctuation way.

Weirdly, all our pets are completely indifferent to parrot video noises, even cockatoos shrieking "GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" in mid-tantrum.

[laurenthemself]

Kookas at my parents' place!

[cimorene]

They are so funny-looking and wee, like little cartoons!