Latest news with #parrots
Free Malaysia Today
5 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Meet Zorro and Luna, Rafiq's free-flying feathered friends
Rafiq Haikal Rosdi started training his birds Zorro (left) and Luna to free-fly when they were about two months old. (Rafiq Haikal Rosdi pic) PETALING JAYA : Have you heard of Have you heard of free-flying birds ? These are birds that are trained to return to their owners after flying outdoors. That's exactly what Rafiq Haikal Rosdi's feathered companions, Zorro and Luna, can do! On National Parrot Day today, FMT Lifestyle shines a spotlight on these beautiful birds and their bond with their human. Zorro, an Edward's Lorikeet, has striking greenish-yellow plumage with a splash of blue on his head. Luna, a Red Lory, is just as eye-catching, with glossy crimson plumage tinged with purplish and dark blue hues. 'I started training them to free fly when they were about two months old,' Rafiq, 23, shared. He began with commands like 'fly to me', 'walk to me', 'jump down' and 'jump up', training them indoors at first before gradually moving outdoors. 'When they're flying, Zorro always follows wherever Luna goes. But Luna doesn't follow Zorro!' he added with a smile. Zorro is a lovelyEdward's Lorikeet, while Luna is a vibrant Red Lory. (Rafiq Haikal Rosdi pic) Although he hasn't conducted DNA tests to accurately ascertain their genders, Rafiq believes Zorro is male and Luna female. Both birds, he said, are about two years old, with Zorro being four to five months older. Rafiq dotes on his feathered friends and makes it a point to spend his evenings engaging in free-flying sessions with them. When time permits on weekends, Rafiq – who lives in Lumut, Perak – travels to places like Bukit Antarabangsa in Selangor to meet other bird owners, so Zorro and Luna can soar through the skies alongside fellow free-flyers. His dedication doesn't stop there: every morning, he feeds the birds fresh fruits like bananas, papayas and apples. On weekdays, whenever his schedule allows, he returns home during his lunch break to give them extra food. Thankfully, his office isn't far from his home, making these midday visits possible. Zorro and Luna will boldly go where most birds won't: near a cat! (Rafiq Haikal Rosdi pic) Rafiq has cared for the birds since they were three or four weeks old, hand-feeding them three times a day when they were younger. Naturally, they've developed a close bond with him. 'When I return home, they start chirping as soon as they hear my voice,' he said fondly. Zorro, Rafiq noted, is the more affectionate of the two – although Luna has a jealous streak and doesn't like it when he plays with his kitten! While most birds steer clear from cats, Zorro is an exception: the bird tries to befriend the resident feline, sometimes by playfully nibbling on the kitten's ears and tail. The kitty is usually unimpressed. Both birds, Rafiq noted, are also fascinated by shiny things: if he's wearing a ring, they love to peck on it! Rafiq dotes on his feathered companions, and it's clear the affection is mutual. (Rafiq Haikal Rosdi pics) Indeed, Rafiq's feathered companions fill his life with happiness, and he treasures the lasting memories they create together, especially during their free-flying sessions. 'When Zorro and Luna fly back to me, it's a heartwarming feeling,' he concluded. Follow the adventures of Zorro and Luna on TikTok. This article was written by Sheela Vijayan @ FMT Lifestyle. Read more pet stories here. TELL US ABOUT YOUR PET: FMT Lifestyle readers are invited to send in pictures (landscape format) and a short video (if any) of their furry, scaly or feathered friends to lifestyle@ Don't forget to include details like your pet's name, age, breed and a short story about them.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Do parrots actually understand what they're saying?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In the wild, parrots squeak, squawk, whistle and trill to communicate with their flockmates. These highly social birds rely on their complex communication systems to get food and warn of potential dangers, and research even suggests parrots use "signature contact calls" to refer to each other, similar to how humans call each other by name. But when parrots live with people, they don't have any flockmates to learn "parrot" from. Instead, they use their highly specialized brains to pick up on human speech. So when parrots talk, do they really understand what they're saying, or are they just masters of mimicry? The answer depends on the individual parrot and how it's trained — though research points toward parrots having a surprising ability to understand human speech and use words and phrases appropriately. "Birds that are trained appropriately can learn amazing amounts of speech," Irene Pepperberg, a research professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University, told Live Science. Pepperberg has spent her career training parrots to use human language. Her most famous study participant, Alex the African gray parrot, was known for his prolific communication skills. Alex understood more than 100 words for different objects, actions and colors. He could count up to six and had a basic understanding of the concept of zero. When given an object, Alex could identify its color, shape and material, as well as accurately compare multiple objects using terms like "bigger" or "smaller" and "same" or "different." Alex was trained using a careful methodology that ensured he understood that specific words applied to certain objects or concepts. But experts say that even everyday pet parrots can pick up on certain features of human language. Related: Why do parrots live so long? Erin Colbert-White, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Puget Sound, said parrots can definitely learn words that refer to real-world objects. "If you say 'peanut' enough times and you hand them a peanut, just like with a kid, they're going to learn that word label," Colbert-White said. To test whether parrots really understand that the word "peanut" refers to a peanut — and not that they just want to be fed any type of food — Colbert-White said you can wait until the bird requests a peanut and then hand them a different food. If the parrot knows exactly what "peanut" means, there's a good chance they'll drop the unrequested food and ask for a peanut again. Colbert-White said this type of learning applies more to concrete, real-world objects than to abstract words or phrases. However, parrots can pick up on contextual cues related to more abstract words. "Sometimes they'll use these words or phrases in appropriate ways, because they're smart," Pepperberg said. For example, a parrot might learn that people say "hello" when they walk into a room and then start saying "hello" to greet people. They may not understand the deeper conceptual meaning of the word, but their owner will probably find the behavior entertaining and reward it by giving them more attention. Parrots form strong bonds with their owners and are very responsive to their feedback, so this creates a cycle of reinforcement where the parrot learns to use words in the correct context. In another example, Pepperberg describes Alex learning how to say "I'm sorry." African gray parrots are notoriously mischievous, and Alex would often break or chew objects around the lab. When he shredded an important stack of papers, Pepperberg wrote in her book "Alex & Me" (Harper, 2008), she became upset and started yelling at him. Alex responded with the words "I'm sorry," a phrase Pepperberg believes he picked up from her. Shortly before the paper shredding incident, Pepperberg had caught Alex with a broken coffee mug. She was angry at first and reprimanded him, but quickly realized Alex could have been hurt, and told him "I'm sorry" while making sure he was okay. After that, Alex continued to say "I'm sorry" after getting into trouble and whenever Pepperberg threatened him with a time out. "He made the connection between the phrase and defusing a fraught situation," Pepperberg said in an email. "There was no contrition (I know a lot of people like that!), but he knew the appropriate context." The same goes for a phrase like "I love you." To a parrot, "what 'I love you' means isn't this abstract concept of love," Colbert-White said, "but rather, 'I have learned that when I say this, I get showered with attention; I get physical affection; I get to connect with my pair-bonded individual.' "I don't know that there's anything particularly fascinating about the fact that they don't understand it, because there are people that say it and don't understand it," she added. "You know, it just serves a function." RELATED MYSTERIES —Why do pigeons bob their heads? —Why do hummingbirds 'hum'? —Why don't all birds fly? Ultimately, each parrot has its own unique capacity to understand human speech. Some parrots never talk at all, especially if they have a fellow parrot to chirp with, Colbert-White said. On that note, Pepperberg thinks it's time that people give parrots more credit for their innate communication abilities — of which researchers are only scratching the surface — rather than just making them learn our languages. "We treat animals as less intelligent than we are in general, but we expect them to learn our systems," Pepperberg said. "We've spent the last 50-plus years trying to crack their systems, without much success."
Forbes
25-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Meet America's Only 3 Native Parrots — One Is Extinct, One Relocated To Mexico, And One Thrives In This Southern State
Parrots are among the most vibrant and loquacious birds in the world — and are typically found in ... More equatorial habitats. Here are three that make, or have made, their home in the USA. Bird species are abundant throughout the world. However, they used to be much more abundant. One study published in PLOS ONE reports that at least 279 bird species have gone extinct since 1500. If you go back to the late Pleistocene epoch (about 10,000+ years ago), research suggests that number grows to about 1,400 species. That said, it's difficult to correctly estimate the number of extinct birds due to what scientists refer to as 'low fossilization potential.' In other words, birds, being smaller than, say, saber-toothed cats or woolly mammoths, are less likely to have been adequately preserved in the fossil record. We know, definitively, that the following three parrot species inhabited what is now considered the continental United States — and one still does. Here's their story. The extinct Carolina parakeet once brightened eastern U.S. forests with its vibrant green, yellow, ... More and orange plumage. Once common across the eastern and midwestern United States, the Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) was a striking sight with its vivid green body, yellow head and orange face. This parrot was the only native parrot species known to inhabit such a broad range of temperate North America, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. These birds were often found in old-growth forests and swamps, nesting in hollow trees and foraging for seeds and fruit. Unfortunately, by the early 20th century, the Carolina parakeet was extinct. Habitat destruction played a significant role in their decline, as forests were cleared for agriculture and urban development. (Sidebar: From America's forests to Asia's jungles, human pressure has erased countless animals — including three tiger subspecies lost in our lifetime. Read their story here.) But the most devastating impacts came from human persecution: farmers killed them in large numbers, believing they were crop pests, and the birds' habit of returning to mourn fallen flockmates made them easy targets. They were also captured for the pet trade and for use in hat-making. The last known wild specimen was seen in Florida in the early 1900s, and the final captive bird, named "Incas," died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918 – coincidentally in the same aviary where the last passenger pigeon died. Despite scattered unconfirmed sightings over the years, the Carolina parakeet is officially extinct. Now found only in Mexico, the thick-billed parrot was once native to Arizona and New Mexico's ... More high-elevation pine forests. Unlike the extinct Carolina parakeet, the thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) still exists, but not in the United States. Once found in the highlands of Arizona and New Mexico, this robust green parrot with a bright red forehead and loud, crow-like call was driven out of its U.S. range by the mid-20th century due to logging, hunting, and habitat fragmentation. Its reliance on old-growth coniferous forests, particularly those containing large pines, made it especially vulnerable to deforestation. In the 1980s and 1990s, efforts were made to reintroduce the thick-billed parrot to the U.S., but these attempts were unsuccessful. Captive-bred birds released into the wild faced multiple challenges, including predators, inadequate survival skills and a lack of suitable habitat. Some also flew back to Mexico, where the species still survives in the Sierra Madre Occidental. (Sidebar: The thick-billed parrot and Carolina parakeet aren't the only U.S. birds lost to time. Meet three more beautiful birds that vanished from America forever.) Today, the thick-billed parrot is classified as endangered and is found only in northern Mexico. Conservationists are working to protect its remaining habitat and stabilize its population. Discussions about future reintroduction efforts in the U.S. continue, but any such plan would require significant restoration of its native forest ecosystem. Unlike the other two native parrots, the green parakeet (Psittacara holochlorus) is alive and well in southern Texas. Native to northeastern Mexico, this medium-sized parrot with vivid green feathers and a loud, screeching call has successfully expanded its range northward. Small flocks have established breeding populations in the Rio Grande Valley and surrounding areas, thanks in part to urban environments providing plenty of food and nesting spots. Green parakeets are social birds, often seen in large flocks roosting in palm trees or on utility lines. They're highly adaptable, feeding on fruits, seeds, and cultivated crops. Some ornithologists debate whether the Texas populations are entirely natural or partly the result of escaped or released pets blending with wild flocks. Regardless, these birds have become a charismatic part of the regional ecosystem. Unlike the Carolina parakeet or thick-billed parrot, the green parakeet's presence in the U.S. isn't tied to ancient history but rather to more recent cross-border expansion. While not officially listed as threatened or endangered, their status is monitored, especially as urban sprawl and climate change continue to reshape the landscape. Does thinking about the extinction of a species instantly change your mood? Take the Connectedness to Nature Scale to see where you stand on this unique personality dimension.
South China Morning Post
17-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong jails Thai parrot's egg smuggler as customs cracks case amid rising trend
A traveller from Thailand has been given a two-year jail sentence in Hong Kong for smuggling 187 parrot's eggs valued at an estimated HK$1.4 million, with an expert saying the seizure is part of a global uptick of cases involving endangered species. Advertisement A Hong Kong court on Friday convicted the Thai man, 30, of illegally importing endangered species as forensic tests showed the eggs to be from endangered species such as the Moluccan cockatoo and yellow-crowned amazon. The man was prosecuted under the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance. He was intercepted at customs clearance upon arrival at Hong Kong airport. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said 188 eggs were found in the man's carry-on baggage at the airport on March 1, and all but one were confirmed to be from 13 endangered parrot species listed in CITES appendices. It said the value of the seizure was estimated at HK$1.4 million. CITES – or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – is a UN treaty with 185 signatories that aims to ensure that the survival of wildlife is not threatened by trade. Advertisement 'Parrot populations have been decimated by illegal trade, which incentivises poaching in the wild worldwide. With the exception of four species, all parrots have been listed on the CITES appendices. In Hong Kong, their international trade and local possession are regulated under the ordinance,' a government spokesman said.
