Not All That Shocking, Really

Qwerty the belligerent parakeet has learned to talk! Sort of. Jimmy and I spent the first six months or so of parakeet ownership saying "hello" to him pretty much constantly, along with other words and phrases which we thought might be charming for him to learn. He never obliged, though he did develop a good mimicry of the squeaking office door hinge, and has been known to make farting sounds on rare occasions.

We've had him for over a year now (I think about a year and a half, actually), and we'd pretty much given up on him ever talking. He seems to enjoy disappointing our hopes - he still won't let us pet him, though he likes standing on our fingers and biting any body parts he can reach.

So imagine my surprise when he started saying intelligible words the other day, out of the blue! But not "hello" or "good morning" or even "pretty bird." Nope. Our boy's entire vocabulary consists of "Qwerty-birdy."

I assume he picked it up from us saying things like "are you ready for some dinner, Qwerty-birdy?" which makes sense, really. It'll be interesting to see if he learns any more words or phrases that we repeat in his presence with unintentional frequency. Maybe he'll learn "hush, Qwerty! I'm on the phone!" or "ouch, damn it! Stop biting me!"