Birds mimic human voices because they enjoy communicating with their social group. Pet birds consider people part of their group. Even birds that are not tame have the ability to mimic sounds and talk. Crows do it, Jays do it, even Starlings. Some species are better mimics than others. The best known taking pet birds are Minahs and Hookbills, or parrots. 

MYTH: If you have more than one bird, the birds will not learn to talk. If birds have bird companions, they may not need social attention from people. Birds learn to talk because they like the attention it generates or because they mimic the social activity of people--talking. In some cases, birds learn to talk from other birds. Birds mimic because sound interests them. If they are interested in human sounds or in gaining human attention they learn to talk.

	MYTH: If you teach your bird to whistle, he won't learn to talk.  It doesn't seem to matter whether birds whistle in their eventual ability to talk but since whistling is easier, birds that don't learn to talk often whistle very well even if they never learn to talk.  If a bird enjoys attention, and talking gets more attention than whistling, the bird will talk more and whistle less.
	MYTH: Tame or hand raised babies learn to talk better than adult birds.  Tame birds are sometimes more interested in people but this is not a guarantee that your bird will talk. Frightened birds may not learn to talk because they are under too much stress to learn much of anything.

Some birds never learn to talk. Even hand raised African Grays who live with no other birds and are not taught to whistle.  If talking is important to you, you may want to buy an older bird that already talks.

TEACHING BIRDS TO TALK
Pet birds that are part of the family learn to talk much as a child does. They babble first and develop better enunciation later. The more language to which they are exposed, the more appropriately and adeptly they use it. Often birds first mimic the sounds that occur during important events such as the sound of the microwave or a familiar person saying "Hello". Birds copy high frequency sounds and voices more readily than low frequency ones. A bird's first word is usually one spoken with excitement, calling the dog or laughing, so birds don't always learn what you want them to.

To teach a particular phrase, you may purchase commercial recordings that repeat phrases over and over. Some recordings are of human voices but some are available with bird voices. You can buy an answering machine tape and record what you want your bird to mimic in your own voice. If you would like to teach your bird a long phrase, start with the last word first. You could teach a bird to recite your address or phone number. However, repetitive sounds may not effectively teach meaningful speech. 

If you use certain words at certain times your bird will use them at the same times. For example, many birds say “hello” whenever the phone rings or “good-bye” when they hear keys jingle. You can teach your bird to say a word that describes the treat he will receive: to say “apple” for a slice of apple and “nut” for that particular treat. When your bird discovers that words have meanings there is no limit to what he might imitate. 

Some trainers think you should cover the cage and repeat a phrase over and over so the bird will not be distracted by other sights in the room. The bird may not respond during the lesson but will be remembering the words for later. Birds are unlikely to talk when they have your full attention since they can better use talking to GET your attention.

Recent research into the intelligence of birds has shown that birds also learn by observation. Because of their social nature, competition for attention motivates them to perform. Dr. Irene Pepperberg has done some incredible speech training with parrots. Her most famous student, Alex, was able to name several colors and shapes, food items and often asked to go back to his cage to get out of performing repetitive exercises. You can use Dr. Pepperberg's method to teach your bird a new phrase. Have a friend, within sight of your bird, repeat a phrase after you. Reward your friend with a peanut or other reward that your bird would like. Reverse rolls. Reward your bird for any attempt to join in. Gradually restrict rewards to clear approximations of words. 

Beware: once your bird understands how to “talk” he may become quite demanding!

Check out this web page for some amazing audio! www.talkingbudgie.com