Senegal parrots aren’t able to talk as young as Kendi is (9 months) but she doesn’t know that, so she’s trying. We keep trying to figure out what her first word or words might be. I thought she might say “Step Up” which is a command she’s probably heard since she was old enough to perch on anything. She was making a sound like “et –erp” which sounded a little like the intonation of the command.

But then, all of the sudden she started to whistle. We were whistling at the pair-a-tweeters a lot, and the pair-a-tweeters were very successful at getting us to make parakeet calls! As much as we whistled various little tunes for them they had zero interest, but Kendi had only been there a few days before they started making Senegal noises. Go figure.....

So anyway, Kendi all of the sudden started to whistle one high note and one low note – very similar to the kind of sound humans make when they’re trying to communicate with each other “come here”. You know, in those old movies where there were rum runners and gangsters on running boards and somebody going “douse da lights! Cheese-it’s da cops!” But this isn’t a whistle that we use…it was like she was trying to say back something she heard us say to her, and since she CAN whistle it was coming out as a whistle. I thought, since it was two notes that it might be “Hello” in the way I say it, because when I say it the first syllable is higher than the second. And I have been saying “hello” to the bird. Because, why not, I say hello to everybody, even the fish. Though it’ll really freak me out if they start to try to communicate back to us.

The Hub thought he detected three “syllables” in the whistle though, and thought she was aiming for “peek-a-bird”. Peek-a-bird is actually a pretty common thing for parrots to say, since lots of parrot owners (including me) play a game with their bird with a towel. The reason is, if you have to take your parrot to the vet, it’s best for everybody if the bird can be wrapped up in a towel and not too freaked out about it. If the parrot isn’t afraid of the towel in general, it’s easier to wrap them up in it and let the vet trim their talons or whatever. But parrots are “prey birds” (they get eaten) so, unless they’re socialized to it, they tend to be really weirded out if somebody suddenly drops a towel over them and then hauls them off to the vet. However, if the bird is used to the towel then you can just play the towel game for a minute, scoop up your bird and it can have it’s nails done or blood drawn and it’s all over before the parrot really has time to get upset.

Besides, playing peek-a-bird is really fun, and birds like it. So, after we get our shower, I set Kendi on her towel on the vanity. As I’m drying my hair, I put the towel over my head, totally covering my face and walk around the bathroom. (This works better when my balance is good, though I think she might find it more amusing when it’s not). While I’m walking around with this towel over my head I call out, “Where’s Kendi? I can’t find my bird!” Then I lift the towel up and say “Peek-a-bird!”

The first couple of times I did this she looked at me like I was out of my mind, which I didn’t find really surprising. Lets face it, she was watching a naked human run around with a towel over her head. But after that she began to start to chirp with excitement as soon as I started to dry my hair. Then I added, “Your turn!” and carefully put a towel over Kendi. “Where’s Kendi? I can’t find my bird!” Meanwhile, she’d walk around under the towel and when she finally stuck her head out “Peek-a-bird!” Now she stays under there longer and longer and comes to come out a different way each time.

I cannot even imagine what the neighbors think is going on in my bathroom. I probably don’t want to know.

But, anyway, back to what Kendi is trying to say….When she would whistle I’d answer “hello” but The Hub would answer “Peek-a-Bird”. And now she’s doing two distinctly different whistles: the original one, and a deliberate “three syllable” one. That’s definitely the tones for “Peek-a-Bird” And over the weekend, as soon as I took her into the bathroom and set her on her towel she did the three part whistle.

It’s so exciting! She’s learning stuff. She’s actually making an effort to speak our language – how cool is that?

I wish I could learn this insurance stuff so easily.