Is this typical?

[Char]

I made a list of the phrases that Whisper says regularly. She will be 19 months old next week. She is my first experience with an African Grey. Is this a large vocabulary for her age or is it typical for Greys. I have heard of Greys having a vocabulary of hundreds of words but Whisper still seems so young to me. Or is it that they do most of the learning during a certain period of their life?


1. GOOD MORNING
2. I LOVE YOU
3. GO POOP
4. YOU WANNA GO BED?
5. YOU READY TO GO TO BED GIRL?
6. WHATCHA DOING?
7. STEP UP
8. COME ON STEP UP
9. BAD BIRD BAD BIRD WHATCHA GONNA DO?
10. STOP IT
11. WHISPER
12. ARE YOU A SMART BIRD?
13. GOOD GIRL
14. ARE YOU A GOOD GIRL?
15. YOU'RE A GOOD GOOD GIRL
16. WANTA GRAPE?
17. WANT SOME APPLE?
18. QUIT THAT
19. HELLO
20. LAUGHS
21. BARKS
22. WHISTLES
23. TRUMPET SOUND
24. WOW THATS AMAZING
25. STAY RIGHT THERE
26. COOCHIE COOCHIE COO
27. WHOOOO
28. PEEKABOO
29. I SEE YOU
30. YOU OKAY?
31. WHAT'S THE MATTER?
32. HEY WHISPER
33. WHAT?
34. OOOPS
35. NO,NO NO
36. GIMME A KISS
37. BE A GOOD GIRL
38. IS THAT GOOD?
39. KISSING SOUND
40. POPEYE WHISTLE
41. WHISPER GIRL
42. I GOTTA GO PEE
43. ARE YOU A GOOD BIRD?
44. WHOOPDEE DOO
45. WHOOO HOOO
46. WHAT DO YOU WANT?
47. MOMS GOTTA GO TO WORK
47. BYE BYE
48. WANTA SCRATCH
49. HMMMM?

[danmcq]

Thats a good question Char!

Whisper is certainly a highly intelligent young Grey with that vocabulary. :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2009/06/28 03:02

[luvparrots]

Whisper certainly is a smart grey with his long list of words and phrases. It will be interesting to hear what others think. Congratulations on your sweet Whisper being such a smarty pants!!!

[she]

Whisper is a smart grey. Its hard to know what is a typical vocablary for a bird of whispers age as I believe it depends on the birds circumstances. Some owners can spend hours teaching new words and some birds are more inclined to talk than others.Charlie is now 6 years old and I was only thinking the other day that he has not said anything new for ages and wondering if they lack interest in learning as they get older or is it just because I have not taught him anything he is interested in?At a guess he has a vocabulary of around 150-200 words and phrases.I have a list on the lap top of all he can say and one for Cracker the tiel who is a really good talker as well.

[Char]

Thanks guys for your input. I am hoping others will chime in with their own experiences. Whisper started at about 6 months with just whistling and hello but was trying to talk.

By 9 months she was saying a few phrases clearly. She really took off at about 1 yr and it got up to about 15 phrases. I saw another big increase at about 15 months with her learning about 1 new phrase a week. About a month ago it started taking her only a couple of days to learn a new phrase.

It was only about a month ago I actively started trying to teach her phrases. Before that I just talked to her normally and she said the everyday stuff that I said just talking and playing with her.

I think it is also interesting to note that I live alone and I am gone all day so the interaction she has is limited. I can't help but wonder what it would be like if she had others talking to her also.

It is also interesting to note that she does not make any of the noises that you hear of Greys picking up. The everyday household sounds such as phone ringing, microwave ect. She also does not say anything from the television even though I leave it on cartoon channel for 4 hrs per day while I am at work. At least not that I have heard.

Since warm weather I have been taking her outside and she does do all the bird calls that she hears out there.

She also mixes up these phrases and makes new ones that often make sense. There are also variation of most of them. For instance she says hello about 6 different ways because of course I don't say it the same all the time.

[she]

I live alone aswell and work fulltime. I dont often go out to teach new words,Charlie just picks them up as we go along.I think I will experiment by picking a phrase to teach him and see how long he takes to pick it up.

[Char]

she wrote:

I live alone aswell and work fulltime. I dont often go out to teach new words,Charlie just picks them up as we go along.I think I will experiment by picking a phrase to teach him and see how long he takes to pick it up.

Good idea. Let us know how it goes. I started with the new phrases because I realized that the stuff I say every day is just not that interesting and if she was going to have a certain amount of phrases some of it should at least be cute or interesting.:laugh:

[danmcq]

I think it all boils down to their interests, wants, needs and social interaction they desire like "Wanna a scratch", "Where's Mommy", "Want Out", etc. It seems to be that they are learning to thrive in the flock by learning it's ways, just as they do in the wild.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2009/06/28 03:01

[Tycos_mom]

I think thats very true what Dan said Tyco is 6 yrs old and has an amazing vocabularty she nows colours and how to count what food are what like with red and yellow peppers she will say red peppers yum or yellow peppers she knows the different colours of them she also knows the different colours of the birds she say Fergie in green I have a Gray dress. she says many things and calls many thing by name she also likes to get her 2 cents worth in when my daughter and I are talking. she is 6 and still learning new things. I just taught her a new song and she picked it up within a couple of days you know the song that goes ooow eee ooow ahah bing bang walla walla walla bing bang. it was easy for her and we had a ton of fun with it. I don't think there is an age limit on new thing I think it up to us how big a vocabulary we want our birds to have they will learn as long as we are willing to teach.

[Char]

Pat, it is encouraging to hear that she still picks up things easily at 6 yrs.