Evil Mirror Parrot!

[JaydeParrot]

My Sennie Cain just doesn't seem to recognise her reflection. Everytime she catches sight of herself in the mirror she screams until I move either her or the mirror away. Sometimes she'll be on my shoulder and give a banshee shriek because I've stood near a reflective surface and haven't noticed. Her eyes dilate, she makes a trembling sound and then (if I don't move her away in time) she screams!

I can't seem to break her out of it, it doesn't really bother me too much that she does it, it just confuses me that when I put my other Sennie Hide infront of the mirror he never screams and almost seems to study himself as if he realises the bird in the mirror is him. Weird how two Sennies could have two completely opposite reactions to seeing themselves in a mirror.

It's strange, does anyone else have a parrot that obviously doesn't recognise themselves/ acts weirdly infront of a mirror?

[Wolf]

I guess it all depends on how you look at it. So far I don't get very much of any kind of reaction beyond a very mild curiosity once in a while, so I consider myself fortunate. Some birds think it is another bird and react violently towards the intruder and others fall totally in love with the strange new bird. Most fall somewhere in between or so it seems.

[Pajarita]

For what we know today (this could change in the future), parrots do not recognize the mirror reflection as themselves - it takes a special type of self-awareness to do this and not all animals have it. Parrots think that what they see is another bird so some of them react with mild curiosity, some with great interest, some with aggression and some with complete indifference.

[liz]

Myrtle was aware of her reflection because she saw both of us. She was on my shoulder.
She decided if that was me then it must also be her.
My Lucy dog and Fancy cat (both are gone now) found a mirror behind a door. I found them sitting side by side looking in the mirror admiring themselves. Because they saw the other in the mirror and knew she was right there they figured it out.

[Pajarita]

Liz, animals don't 'figure' things out the way humans do and self-awareness in reflections has only been noted in few species of mammals (dolphins, orcas, elephants, orangutans, gorillas, chimps, bonobos and macaques) and one single avian: magpies.

[liz]

Liz, animals don't 'figure' things out the way humans do and self-awareness in reflections has only been noted in few species of mammals (dolphins, orcas, elephants, orangutans, gorillas, chimps, bonobos and macaques) and one single avian: magpies.

A Myrtle needs added to the list. We had a large mirror behind the sofa. Myrtle landed on the sofa. When she looked in the mirror she said "hello there Myrtle".

[Pajarita]

Most likely she thinks that 'Hello there, Myrtle' is her name and she was introducing herself to the bird in the mirror (that's what they do, they use their own name first thing in communicating and that's why some parrots just repeat Hello Hello Hello).

I do firmly believe that parrots are highly intelligent but one needs to be very careful not to anthropomorphize their behaviors because, in reality, we end up doing them a disservice.