Intelligence Difference Between Senegal Parrot and Budgie

[Michael]

Today I've come across what I think might be the first clear intelligence difference I've observed between my Senegal Parrot and Budgie (when I had one). Everyone says the bigger parrots are generally smarter than smaller ones. I hear stuff like a Macaw is smarter than a Senegal, a Senegal is smarter than a Budgie, etc. While there may be some truth to these comparisons, I think the differences are much smaller than you might think.

In the 5 months Kathleen and I had Duke, there was not a single trick that my Senegal Parrot knew that we were not able to teach to the Budgie (from what we've tried). One major difference that I observed from the very beginning was that the Senegal Parrot could learn all tricks on the basis of a prop, hand, or vocal cue. The budgie could equally master all but the verbal cue. The budgie really couldn't handle word cues like the Senegal could. Perhaps with time it might have but in the same amount of time, the Senegal definitely managed to learn all the tricks with vocal and visual cues.

A while back I had taught both the Senegal Parrot and Budgerigar to go down a slide I had built for them myself.



I had not practiced the slide with my Senegal Parrot in a long time. Mostly cause it takes a little time to set up the slide and I'm really not that interested in the trick. However, I wanted to make sure she remembers and wanted her to fly to do it. Surely enough when I set up the slide she flew down from her perch to do it on the floor.

The interesting thing (which is the point of this whole post) is that after she came down the slide, since I didn't reward her quickly enough, she went around to go up the ladder and down the slide a second. Why I found this very interesting is because the budgie really never had enough sense to go and do the slide over again for another treat. If we placed him at or near the ladder he would go up and slide down but as much as we tried, he didn't grasp going back to the ladder to go again. We almost had it by targeting him back and around and to ladder but it wasn't the same. My Senegal Parrot just knew that she could get a treat by walking over to do the trick again while the budgie never seemed to grasp that as a concept.

So the conclusion I am making is that Senegals are more perceptive than budgies rather than more capable/intelligent. It seems like my Senegal can think things through with greater complexity. I don't know if the budgie would have been capable of the more advanced tricks I've taught Kili since like puzzle, piggy bank, and ring on peg. However, the budgie did master target, turn around, wave, crawl through tube, flight recall, and fetch no worse than the Senegal (relative to the size difference).

So whenever I hear someone downplaying budgies or saying that parrot x is smarter than parrot y, it really makes me wonder if a significant difference in capability has been demonstrated or if everyone just underestimated and never pushed the "dumber" parrot to the same limits. People who buy a budgie for $20 don't think it's capable of the things a $2,000 parrot can do. But oh how wrong they are!!!! With equally qualified training I'm sure their capabilities would be very close, much closer than their price difference. Just the problem is that the kinds of people who buy budgies are usually people too cheap or careless to buy an expensive bird (like for a child or cause they are not serious about it) so they would never even take the time to treat it like a more expensive bird.

[miajag]

I agree, and this is one of the first things I learned about the smaller parrots that I didn't know before I actually started researching them. I had always assumed that larger parrots like African Greys and Macaws were the only "smart" ones, and that small parrots like budgies and lovebirds were basically glorified canaries - pretty, but not really capable of doing things besides chirping and looking cute. It makes sense, though - to the uninitiated, it is logical to assume that because the smaller parrots have smaller brains they would be less intelligent and less capable of speaking, learning tricks, etc. I've really been amazed by what some of the little parrots can do.

[windharper]

On the subject of smarter vs. not so smart birds, I have seen so much insisting that Macaws or African Greys are the smartest birds. I'd be interested in reading what the general experience/opinion is here.

I've noticed that there are a whole lot of Senegal owners on this forum. I've found a couple of books that say that a Senegal isn't a strong talker. I find this completely unbelievable based upon my limited experience. Tamber said more than 100 statements (not just words) by his first birthday. He is such a strong talker and picks up things ~very~ quickly. He even has some contextual understanding of some things too. I'd like to hear about other Senegal owners on this one too. Are these books just written by misinformed authors? What is the norm for Senegals?

Deb
a.k.a. windharper

[Michael]

You have to understand the difference between the generalizations and the individuals. Of course there will be outliers and exceptions but the descriptions you generally read about apply generally but no absolutely. You may have a rare exception there of a good talking Senegal Parrot. Or perhaps you nourish an environment that is very suitable for learning to speak, I don't know. My Senegal Parrot is one and a half years old and barely says anything. I'm happy I can get her to say hello on cue but that's practically it. She sort of says "look at me" and does a catcall but that's practically it for what she says. She's not even good at imitating household noises which Senegals are supposedly good at.

In order to claim that Macaws/African Grey Parrots are the smartest, someone would have to demonstrate something of high intelligence capability that those parrots can do that others have been demonstrated incapable of. I really wonder if there are any known instances and results or if it is all hypothetical. Kili may not be a good talker but she is really really smart and very capable at advanced tricks.

[Nir]

So the conclusion I am making is that Senegals are more perceptive than budgies rather than more capable/intelligent. It seems like my Senegal can think things through with greater complexity. I don't know if the budgie would have been capable of the more advanced tricks I've taught Kili since like puzzle, piggy bank, and ring on peg. However, the budgie did master target, turn around, wave, crawl through tube, flight recall, and fetch no worse than the Senegal (relative to the size difference).

I agree that the difference might be small, but this last paragraph does describe your Senegal to be a smarter more intelligent bird. However this might just be a individual difference rathere then the breed. How do you describe the memory and attention span of the budgie compared to bigger birds?

[marie83]

I think budgies can be perceptive. When Madi arrived at mine she had this stupid cage with 4 food hoppers that attatch to the outside of the cage with these flaps that clipped down so you can fill them from the outside.
Anyhow before I had chance to get her a better cage (someone had begged me to take her in so I didn't have the cash right away) she figured out she could squeeze in one of the hoppers and get out. She did this many many times, always out the same one and never attempted to try the others, until I figured out how to secure the flap better so she couldn't escape but I could still remove the hoppers. As soon as she realised she couldn't get out that way anymore she moved on to a different one which became her exit, I blocked that one off and she moved on to the 3rd hopper. She never did try the 4th one though.

I can't speak from a training point of view though as I didn't go beyond step up with her.

[Khaiqha]

As far as size differences go, I can only offer my personal experiences. My IRN could learn tricks in 5 minutes, and could modify tricks. For instance, she learned that she can give a kiss to ask for something, even if I'm not offering it (usually it's whatever I'm holding in my hand or something she's staring at). She also quickly learned that people love it when she whistles, talks, or makes cute noises, so she only ever does those when someone is upset with her to calm them down.

My alexandrine takes 3-5 days to learn a trick, and so far seems to only be able to learn one trick at a time.

It would take a lot of research to compare species/size intelligence differences. I mean, for all I know my IRN just enjoys tricks more than my alex.

[liz]

Michael if you had Duke today he might have been as advanced. It is not that a senegal is smarter but that the budgie is out of the running.

[AlbertaAviary]

I agree, budgies are very smart! I'm trying to teach Yoshi the "go through tube trick" and "wave." He can already do the bat trick. Cocoa, however, seems to be too stubborn for tricks.

I really started noticing how smart my budgies are when Yoshi began to get tired one night. The birds usually go to their cage for the night at around 8:30. It was around that time when Yoshi jumped of the chair I was was sitting on. He walked (he's clipped) all the way from the living room upstairs to his cage downstairs. After I got Cocoa, I didn't notice him do things like that anymore, untill a few days ago..

I took the birdies out for a walk. We went pretty far for it just being around our neighbourhood. As I approached my next door neighbour's house, Yoshi began chirping widly and he leaned forward like he was going to fly. He began to get very antsy when I we walked up our driveway. Maybe he knew it was our house!

I take my birds for car rides alot. Yoshi leans towards the door whenever we get into the garage. Maybe he knew we were getting out!


Cocoa is quite smart too, I just don't have any examples right now, heheh..

[iguanabytes]

Blue(our male budgie) seems to be able to mimic just about anything- my wife plays videos on youtube for the birds, and he will pull sounds from them out of his back pocket weeks or months later.

my conure calls me baby(because I call him baby bird) and my wife aldo baby(because she is owned by her parrotlet. she heard someone, not Tango(the conure) calling her aldo baby, turned out it was Blue, calling her to come rescue wallace(pudgy, elderly, red rump parakeet, at that particular moment soaked from a bath, and not at his most aerodynamic) from the floor. so Blue was able to perceive a difference between humans, and call the one he thought most able to help.

Blues name for me, by the way, is "c'mere"