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The Parrot Thread

ramonmercado

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Incredible journey of refugee parrots
By LR Jagadheesan
BBC News, Madras

Two parrots owned by 15-year-old Tamil refugee Bhovana Nishanthini Lombert mean absolutely everything to her.

Bhovana says that she loves the parrots as much as her family
So devoted is the teenager to her feathered friends that she was willing to take them and nothing else in the arduous journey by sea from war-torn Sri Lanka to a refugee camp in the south of India.

The birds remained on her shoulders throughout the voyage.

Bhovana is one of about 4,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who have fled their homes in the north of Sri Lanka because of the increasing number of skirmishes between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The refugees travel across the 30km (18-mile) stretch of sea that separates Sri Lanka from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, crammed into small fishing vessels.

I love these birds as much as I love my three brothers and parents - they are part of our family

Bhovana

Sometimes there is no room to sit down - let alone carry a pair of parrots - with as many as 20 people standing huddled over their meagre belongings.

On her arrival in India, Bhovana - like other refugees - underwent tough questioning by Indian security agencies.

But Bhovana's entry procedure provided welcome relief in what sometimes can be a tense and bad-tempered bureaucratic exercise.



"The sight of Bhovana with two parrots sitting on her shoulders eased the tension and brought an instant smile all around, including the police," a local journalist told the BBC.



Tamil civilians face a dangerous journey to India

A police official - known only as Radha - who registered Bhovana's family as refugees vividly recalls the arrival of the winged visitors in her office.

"The parrots were so cute and so friendly with the girl," she said.

"It was such a pleasant experience to watch them play. We all liked them."

However, the police had a problem.

How do they register these two winged visitors to meet the exacting standards of Indian immigration law?

Accompanying warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates

Official description of Bhovana's parrots
After much deliberation, a senior official in the station recalled an earlier incident in which a refugee brought in a Pomeranian dog.

It was classified by the authorities as an "accompanying canine".

Using the same logic, the two parrots were classed as "accompanying warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates".

In other words, the two parrots were officially recorded as part of Bhovana's family.

"Compared to other pet animals like dogs and cats, we consider parrots as safe and easy to maintain," Radha explained.

"So our security personnel, who are mainly worried about possible infiltration into India by Tamil Tiger rebels, were happy to allow the parrots to stay in the refugee camp.

The teenager herself says that she is devoted to her pets and will never be separated from them.

"I love these birds as much as I love my three brothers and parents. They are part of our family," she said.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5176174.stm
 
This seems to be the only Parrots thread...
Parrot fossil unearthed in Siberia
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News

A parrot fossil has been unearthed in Siberia - the furthest north one of these birds has ever been found, a study reports.
A single parrot bone was discovered in the Baikal region and dates to between 16 and 18 million years ago.
It suggests that the birds, which today mainly inhabit tropical and sub-tropical regions, may once have been widespread in Eurasia.
It is also the first time a fossil parrot has been found in Asia.

The research is published in the journal Biology Letters.
The study's author Dr Nikita Zelenkov, from the Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, said he was surprised by the discovery.
"No-one before has ever found evidence of their presence in Siberia," he said.

The researchers discovered the ancient parrot's remains at Tagay Bay in the east of Siberia.
"We were excavating all kinds of animals there, and mostly they were rodents, rhinos, cats, hippos and others," said Dr Zelenkov.
"But this locality is also interesting because it preserves a rich community of fossil birds. But no exotic birds have been found there before."

Dr Zelenkov discovered part of a bone called a tarsometatarsus, which is found in the lower leg of birds. After comparing it with other species, he discovered that it belonged to a small parrot.
"Unfortunately, this find is not good enough to reconstruct the appearance or lifestyle of this parrot, but we can see that it was rather similar to modern ones. So it was likely a very modern-looking small bird, around the size of a budgerigar."

It shares features with another earlier fossil parrot bone in Germany, reported in a study published in 2010, belonging to a species called Mogontiacopsitta miocaena.

Migration routes

Commenting on the research, Dr David Waterhouse, senior curator of natural history at Norfolk Museums Service, said: "What's interesting about this is how far north the bird is and how far east it is."

However, he said it was not completely unexpected to find a parrot in Siberia.
"Even though today we associate parrots with tropical and sub-tropical environments, you can get parrots in the Himalayas," he said.
"So they can deal with those climates - and during the Miocene period it was even warmer than it is now. So when you put it together it is not surprising."

He added that the discovery could change our understanding of how early parrots spread around the world and moved into the Americas.
Previous theories suggested they may have flown from Africa into the Americas, but this find suggests another route.

"This paper suggests - and it is only a suggestion but it is an interesting one - that we have parrots in Asia and the easiest possible route from Asia to North America is across what's now the Bering Strait, across from Russia into Canada and Alaska," said Dr Waterhouse.

He added: "They've found something that even if it doesn't give us all the answers, it does raise more questions and starts us thinking about new hypotheses - and that's the kind of science that I like."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37764327
 
Deceased Cross-Dressing Parrot.

Douglas the parrot, who appeared in a popular children's film about the adventures of Pippi Longstocking, has died at the age of 51.

Douglas, a male red macaw, was unfazed by both celluloid fame and playing the female role of Rosalinda, a member of a gang of pirates who capture Pippi's father Captain Efraim Longstocking in the 1970 film Pippi in the South Seas, Dagens Nyheter newspaper reports.

Matthias Reinschmidt, the director of Karlsruhe Zoo in Germany, said Douglas had died of old age, while resting on his arm.

Pippi Longstocking is the young heroine of a series of books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, which have been adapted for the small and big screen many times. After his moment in the limelight, Douglas went on to settle in an enclosure at the Folk Park in Malmö, but peace was to elude him in Sweden.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-47358702
 
BIG-ass parrot! Polly wanna crack-YOU! :nails:
Giant parrot unearthed by paleontologists in New Zealand

Scientists didn't set out to unearth the biggest parrot in history, but that's what they what found.

Paleontologists found the remains of the giant parrot in 19-million-year-old deposits near St. Bathans in Central Otago, New Zealand. The research team named the new species Heracles inexpectatus; they described the record-setting bird in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters.

The massive parrot stood more than three feet tall and its giant beak could crack most types of food, scientists surmised.

The newly named species hails from the Miocene period. Fossil-rich deposits from the period hold the secrets of animal evolution in the wake of the dinosaur's disappearance. ...

Scientists have found a variety of extinct giant bird species across the globe, but until now, researchers had yet to uncover a giant parrot species.

The new species was roughly the size of the famous dodo of the Mauritius. Scientists suggest the species belonged to a primitive group of parrots from New Zealand, of which the endangered kakapo is a member.

With the discovery of Heracles, scientists can paint a rich picture of life during the Miocene on New Zealand.

"Heracles lived with some 40 other species of birds at least in the warm subtropical forests and around the lake," Worthy said. "It was likely flightless and certainly spent most time on the ground where it walked about with at least a couple moa species and a similar sized adzebill."

According to Worthy, the species foraged for fruits and seeds dropped by the many lakeside trees and plants. ...

"Heracles may also have preyed on small animals that it could dig out of logs or even snacked on dead or dying moa," Worthy said.

Many of the birds that Heracles lived alongside survived for millions years, disappearing only after the arrival of humans, but the giant parrot didn't last as long.

"Heracles and the diversity of parrots and pigeons was likely lost about 13 to 12 million years ago," Worthy said, "when there was an abrupt climate cooling of about 8 degrees Celsius and most of the warmth-loving plants and hence most of the berry and fruiting trees were lost."

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/20...paleontologists-in-New-Zealand/9181565185050/

CITED PAPER: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0467
 
Here are illustrations from the news item and the paper, showing the giant parrot's size relative to wrens and to a representative human.

Giant-parrot.jpg


ParrotComparo.jpg
 
He has passed on and gone to meet his maker. He is a stiff. This is an ex-parrot.
 
Cue the Dead Parrot Sketch.
 
Altruistic African Parrots.

Helping others is such an essential part of being human that we’ve developed elaborate rituals—and biblical edicts—for protecting kin and sheltering strangers. Yet aside from humans, only a few other species, including orangutans and bonobos, seem to willingly help others. Now, scientists say they’ve found the first nonmammals that are also altruists: African gray parrots.

Past studies suggest some birds are prickly creatures. For example, crows—known for their intelligence—would not help other crows earn a nut reward, as parrots do for each other in the new study. The parrot study is “striking,” says Karl Berg, an avian ecologist and wild parrot expert at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, despite the small numbers of birds in the study. Berg was not involved in the research.

To find out whether African gray parrots or blue-headed macaws—two exceptionally brainy species—would assist their fellows, animal cognition scientists with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology’s Comparative Cognition research station, tested four and three pairs, respectively. They first taught the captive birds to exchange a token with a researcher for a nut reward (above).

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...-first-birds-observed-showing-kindness-others
 
the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology’s Comparative Cognition research station
This institutional title gave me pause for thought. Was Max a twitcher? Turns out his great extra-curricular hobby was music, in fact. Turns out, further, that the German equivalent of the Royal Society was renamed in his honour, and accordingly many of the latter's institutes were similarly renamed.
 
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Parrot 'who heard victim's last words' to give evidence in rape and murder trial

The comments of a parrot may be used in an upcoming rape and murder trial.

1_Idyllic-Animal-Birdwatch-safari-Beautiful-and-curious-Blue-and-Yellow-Parrot-macaw-tropical-bird-on.jpg


(Stock photo)

Elizabeth Toledo, 46, was raped and then killed in the city of San Fernando, Argentina in December 2018.

At the end of the month a police officer was guarding the crime scene when they heard a parrot say "Ay, no, Por favour, soltame!" ("No, please, let me go"), Clarin reports.

The police believe the parrot was repeating its owner's last words as she was allegedly beaten and raped by two housemates.

Local media said that the parrot was also mentioned by a neighbour who heard it saying "why did you beat me" as one of the arrested suspects fled the house.

Housemates Miguel Saturnino Rolon and Jorge Raul Alvarez have been arrested in connection with the homicide.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/parrot-who-heard-victims-last-22082581

maximus otter
 
From the Grimsby Live website: more swearing parrots!

Five naughty parrots temporarily removed from Lincolnshire Wildlife Park after they started swearing at customers

Five parrots at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park were temporarily removed after they started swearing at customers.

The newly adopted parrots, brought into The Friskney Park on August 15, had been in quarantine together in the same room.

To cure their boredom in self-isolation, it appears they entertained themselves by sharing their knowledge of swear words.

The park’s chief executive, Steve Nichols, said his team member couldn’t help but crack a smile when hearing their foul language – but said this only encouraged the birds to do it more.

What bothers me is that the staff seem to believe the parrots understand that they are swearing. They don't, they are just repeating sounds. They have no understanding of human vocabulary.

It's good that the Park seems to accept rescue parrots, though. I bet they think they're in Heaven after being in cages or chained to perches for years.
 
Parrots removed from Lincolnshire zoo after they started swearing at customers
A group of parrots at a UK zoo had to be removed from display when they all began swearing at customers.

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park adopted five African grey parrots on August 15 and put them into a room together to isolate.

However, while they were in quarantine, they managed to teach each other a raft of obscenities.

The staff were left in hysterics when they realised what had happened.

But the park swiftly put the birds back into isolation when they started swearing at guests.

Steve Nichols, CEO at the Friskney park, said that over the last 25 years he has taken in many parrots "that have sometimes had a bit of blue language".

He told the Standard: "Every now and then you’ll get one that swears and it’s always funny. We always find it very comical when they do swear at you."

But, he added that these newly adopted birds had been stuck together with nothing to do and the zoo soon had a room "full of swearing birds," on their hands.


Article Concludes:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/...=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1601391593
 
I posted this on the Parrots thread yesterday.
 
I remember decades ago in Yorkshire, a garden centre I used to visit had an elderly parrot whose greeting to customers was "You can eff off, (slight pause) you effin effers" . The owner didn't like customers going to his shop.
 
People love talking parrots, as we've seen. Swearing ones are even better.
Because not all zoo visitors see the humor in it, administrators at UK have now separated 5 parrots who seemed to jointly provoke each other into cussing all the time.
Five parrots separated at UK zoo after encouraging each other to swear at guests

A UK wildlife sanctuary has been forced to separate five naughty parrots after they wouldn't stop swearing at visitors. ...

The parrots are part of Lincolnshire Wildlife Centre's colony of 200 African grey parrots and were put in quarantine together upon arrival.

But they quickly overwhelmed the staff with their naughty language. ...

"We are quite used to parrots swearing, but we've never had five at the same time," the centre's chief executive, Steve Nichols, told AP.

"Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it."

Rather than being offended, most zoo visitors found the foul-mouthed parrots amusing, with the sanctuary confirming no complaints had been made. ...

Despite visitors finding the parrots funny, the zoo decided to keep the rogue offenders away from children to ensure they didn't ruffle any feathers with parents.

The sanctuary explained the five parrots have each been moved to different areas of the zoo so that they are unable to provoke each other.
FULL STORY: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyl...o-swear-at-guests/OJHNW3XBQQBO3PUB4HGJYET4Q4/
 
From the Grimsby Live website: more swearing parrots!

Five naughty parrots temporarily removed from Lincolnshire Wildlife Park after they started swearing at customers



What bothers me is that the staff seem to believe the parrots understand that they are swearing. They don't, they are just repeating sounds. They have no understanding of human vocabulary.
(coming into the discussion a year later because I started reading the thread last night):
I think you're underestimating psittacine intelligence here. Anyone who's spent much time around talking parrots can tell you that they do understand human talk to some extent. Especially, they figure out what certain words mean, learn the names of other creatures around them, and call them by those names. And they are definitely bright enough (and ornery enough) to make the connection between certain sounds they learn and how the audience reacts to said sounds, and start making those sounds purposely, just to get amusing reactions from humans. We're talking about a beastie with the intelligence of a three or four year old kid, who gets his own strange ideas in his little pointy head, and tends toward an unsophisticated (to put it mildly!) sense of humor.

My first cockatiel knew all too well what "breakfast time" meant. The little bastard learned that phrase, then started ordering breakfast every day at the crack of dawn. Loudly, repeatedly, and until he got breakfast. And cockatiels are sweet natured simpletons compared to Grays or Macaws.
 
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