A British wildlife sanctuary has been forced to separate five parrots who wouldn’t stop swearing at visitors. Keepers say the birds encouraged each other to keep cursing, and had to be moved from the main outdoor aviary…
“We are quite used to parrots swearing, but we’ve never had five at the same time,” the center’s chief executive, Steve Nichols, told AP. “Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it.” …
Still, keepers thought it would be best to keep them away from children so not to ruffle any feathers. They were separated and moved to various different areas of the wildlife center so they are unable to provoke each other.
I had a parrot loving boy friend who adopted/rescued a parrot who had lived with a woman who had been regularly abused by a violent boy friend, AND (because or merely subsequently) had become fully neurotic. Her family took the woman in, but not her parrot who had learned and endlessly dramatically repeated three phrases
“He’s killing me killing me killing me.”
“Won’t someone hel-----------------p me.”
“I’m dy-----------------------------------------ing!”
It took my friend three years of patient coaxing and training to shift the parrot to a less appalling repetoire of Buddhist phrases. Fortunately he lived in an isolated house up Topanga Canyon.
My favorite parrot tale of all time is a stunningly powerful blend of parrot lore with a WWII refugee story, starring an ancient but still inquisitive Sherlock Holmes as a character:
