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Very strange training question!

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Very strange training question!

Postby Viatrixa » Wed May 25, 2016 10:15 am

This will probably sound a little stupid, but... well, here I go.

I randomly began to wonder if putting on videos on birds getting petted and handled by their owners would have any effect on my ringneck. It's not that unusual for an animal of some intelligence to actually react to videos of certain things. This of course I'd guess, varies on the animal in question since they aren't all the same. While it may be a terrible example, playing videos of a panda couple mating has been used to put actual pandas "in the mood" so to speak.

I know that parrots have actually learned to imitate sounds they hear from videos and sounds and what not. I randomly got curious weather my bird seeing videos of other birds doing something specific would have any effect? I assume the response here may just be "try it!", since different creatures react differently to these things. Don't get me wrong - I don't harbor any ideas of "taking the easy way out" with parrot training :D I prefer to teach things to him myself, but I couldn't help but to wonder about this.

Should I try? Simo loves to see videos of other birds; his favorites seem to be a certain yellow ringneck and a loud cockatoo.
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby Michael » Wed May 25, 2016 10:33 am

Not gonna work. Even watching another live bird get handled usually won't work for a bird that is too scared of hands.
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby Pajarita » Wed May 25, 2016 11:23 am

Well, I don't ever expose my birds to TV or videos because of the alpha waves and the too low frame rate they have (birds seeing at 100 -120 fps and the most advanced TVs having only around 50) so I can't use my own experience for this but I think it all depends on how the animal actually sees as well as the frame rate AND the colors (TV and computer screens having virtually no UV output which birds need to see accurately). For example, it's known that dogs and cats cannot really recognize shapes in two dimensions so, although they would look at a TV screen and even follow, say, a ball bouncing in it (and I know this to be a fact because both my cats and my dogs try to 'catch' it on the screen), they can't really recognize a photo or video of their own human because they can only follow movement but cannot distinguish real shapes without depth. Birds are the most visually oriented of all the vertebrates and have excellent vision (there is a good reason why they refer to them as two eyes with wings :D) and parrots seem to respond to two dimension images but whether they actually SEE and recognize the birds on the video or simply react to movement and sound, I can't tell you. My opinion is that they don't but there are no studies about this so it's just my personal off-the-wall notion...
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby Viatrixa » Thu May 26, 2016 2:27 pm

These are all interesting answers! I assume putting it like this: "they see but they also don't" is a good way to express it!

Simo is a LOT more confident with my hands because I've use the clicker & stick training method :roll: I've gotten him to poke stuff like this too, such as the bells of his toys and what not. I was merely wondering if a bird seeing another bird giving positive signs from something would get it curious about the activity.

How animals perceive things when they are exposed to actions by other animals / humans is always interesting (Simo has started to sometimes chop vegetables with his beak into his water bowl after he saw my husband cook repeatedly). He does look at our computer screens with curiosity but now I wonder what it is that he "sees", maybe some garbled moving bits color coupled with noise perhaps? His "favorites" are either bright in color or loud in noise so it would make perfect sense.
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby Pajarita » Fri May 27, 2016 9:49 am

I believe that parrots do learn from other parrots. It is, after all, something programmed into their brains as they are born so very altricial and need to learn almost everything from their parents.... it might not be an immediate reaction but it does happen. I know for a fact that it's easy for me to transition a new bird to my usual diet because of all the other birds that follow it gladly. And I think that, although you would have to work one-on-one with a parrot that is afraid of people, seeing another parrot affectionately interacting with a human does make a difference to them... They also learn to interact with other animals based on the human response to the other animals actions (my birds tell the dogs to shut up when they bark and, sometimes, if they keep on doing it, they add the 'Stupid dogs!' as I do :lol: ).
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby seagoatdeb » Fri May 27, 2016 4:39 pm

My Meyers has learned to try things after watching my Red Belly do them so i have seen that parrots learn from watching others. Maybe not all parrots, but Pois sure do.
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby Wolf » Sat May 28, 2016 7:01 am

I have never seen an animal that did not learn many things, especially the things that we want them to learn from watching and interacting with other animals. I have always taken advantage of this method of training with all of my animals, I would feel kind of dumb if knowing this if I did not use it to my advantage, but that is how I am and not intended to apply to anyone else, so please take into account that I am only speaking of myself in regards to this last statement.

Although Kookooloo is not a fan of me using the computer or the remote for the TV, she and some of my other birds do seem to enjoy watching the tv and even better they like it when I pull up you tube videos for them to watch. Although Kiki, Senegal, does not seem to mind videos of other species of birds doing thing ( she does like Disco the parakeet) both she and Kookooloo seem to always prefer watching the ones of their own species over the majority of the other videos.

I really don't know what they see when watching videos, but based upon what I know of the construction of the eye itself, I would think that except for colors that they would see pretty much what I see. How that is processed in the brain is another story. The only thing that I can say with certainty is what I have just said.
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby seagoatdeb » Thu Jun 02, 2016 4:52 pm

They see a lot more than we do, and since the tv is a flickering image, that flickers at the rate for us to see it as a continuous stream, they may see it very different but if they enjoy seeing other parrots shows they can recognize the parrot shape and behavior.

I had a Lutino cockatiel female Cezanne, that tried to eat with one foot like Gaugan did, and she tried for months, and once in a while could hold it in one foot propping it on something else, but she tried for a long time before she gave up.

Parrots will copy the behavior of other parrots often. When it comes to copying what they see of a human interacting with another parrot, it can help them learn that behavior, but it is not quite the same as what they choose on their own to learn and it usually takes some work on our part.
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby Pajarita » Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:53 am

Well, if you consider the fact that parrots see 120 frames per second and that the newest TVs only project about 50/60 frames per second, the image on a TV would look, to them, more like strobic lights look to us than actual steady images...
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Re: Very strange training question!

Postby seagoatdeb » Fri Jun 03, 2016 2:38 pm

Pajarita wrote:Well, if you consider the fact that parrots see 120 frames per second and that the newest TVs only project about 50/60 frames per second, the image on a TV would look, to them, more like strobic lights look to us than actual steady images...


Thats true, but not only has Wolf has said his parrots enjoy watching tv with parrots on it. i have seen many reports from people as well as videos showing parrots excitedly watching other parrots, so they are able to make out something. I can add no input viewpoint here as mine dont watch tv....lol
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