|
|
||
|
Reader Response: |
Talking finches are not that uncommon! |
|
|
by Julie R. Duimstra |
Return to: | |
|
|
Talking finches are not that uncommon! I have
heard the little Red Headed Finch that was featured in the
article utter the word "Turkey" very clearly over the
telephone! His talent is limited however......he did not dial my
telephone number. :-)
Years ago at a bird show in Medford, OR, I
witnessed my first talking finch, a hand fed Java Rice Bird that
said the word, "Hello" in a very clear little voice.
More recently I have heard a hand fed chocolate and white pied
Bengalese (Society) finch say, "Flick my bird" -
an abbreviated version of what his owner Clara Gontero always said
to Flick when she would uncover his cage in the morning, i.e.,
......"How is Flick my bird....?"
I have hand raised several finches over the past
five years. Bengalese, Zebra and the Diamond Firetail Finch are
the species that I have worked with. I know many others who have
enjoyed the rich rewards of this labor intensive endeavor. The
hand tamed finches are endearing little souls and offer a whole
new dimension to what we think of as pet birds.
There is a window of time during which birds learn
their songs. The late Dr. Luis Baptista at the California
Academy of Sciences devoted much of his life's work to the study of
song in birds - its development and the variations or dialects
that exist from region to region. Not unlike our own patterns of
human speech and how they differ with geographical regions.
Luis was fascinated with how birds learn their
song. When I visited with him last year in his laboratory at the
California Academy of Sciences, he played sonograms or recordings of
bird songs and encouraged myself and others to record the
vocalizations of the birds that we keep.
I began to think about the birds that I had raised
over the years and the "songs" that each one subsequently
developed. I reflected on one little Society Finch (not hand
raised incidentally) that incorporated portions of three distinctly
different songs from 3 different cocks into his own little song.
I was totally amazed by this!
I have also heard the trilling song of a
canary pour forth from a brilliant, multi-colored Gouldian Finch cock!
The Gouldian was housed in the same room with a singing canary at that
critical time when the pieces of its song was forming and the result
was that it incorporated the canary's entire song as its own!
Having said all of this in this uncharted area of
"talking finches" all I can offer are my observations.
I must say, I have found this whole concept very fascinating and just
to test it further, I keep repeating simple, one syllable words to the
little Bengalese finch that I have just hand raised through
fledging..........to date I have nothing to report in terms of the
bird's speech...........however, the sex of this bird has yet to be
determined!
Hand fed finches as pets! What a novel
concept.
Julie R. Duimstra
NFSS Panel Judge
|
|