How a Budgie Parrot Learns Behavior

The first and favorite way for a Budgie parrot to learn is by imitation.

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language tells us that the verb "to parrot" means "to repeat words or actions mechanically.

The education of a young parrot involves copying behavior from parents, siblings, and cousins who comprise the basic social unit (the flock) and receiving emotional or physical reward for successfully imitating their behavior.

In the wild, successful parrot behavior is rewarded first with survival, and then, among other things, a full belly.

If a parrot encounters a situation for which it has learned no successful way to act, it will do whatever comes naturally—usually scream, fly away, or bite.

In the home, parrots also imitate their companions, avian or mammal.

Although behavior is learned in the same way, skills needed in the living room differ from the skills needed in the field or forest.

A wild bird must be able to find food and water, avoid predators, and communicate with and find the flock.

A bird that strays far from the flock (actually or behaviorally) may not live to see the sunset.

Skills required for happy adjustment in the home include healthy eating habits, nonviolence, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, and appropriate communication.

If there is no opportunity to copy behavior, the bird will improvise behavior to achieve the desired result.

If the bird cannot fly away, it has limited options. If, for example, a parrot does not want to be held by a person with a mustache, the bird might bite every person with a mustache.

If every person with a mustache who is bitten puts the bird down, this reinforces the habit of biting people with mustaches.

Any behavior that is reinforced can become a pattern. If a bird establishes a pattern of biting under certain circumstances, that pattern can easily be transferred to other circumstances.

As we will discuss frequently, over 90 percent of the wild parrot's time and energy is spent foraging for and consuming food.

In a captive environment, the provision of food creates an enormous void in the bird's physical and mental "habitat."

In captivity the need to fill the behavioral void created by removing the need to forage is the source of many other behaviors.

These activities that take the place of other "natural" behaviors are called displacement behaviors. They can work to the bird's advantage—for example, learning healthy play habits and learning to accept a variety of foods. They can work to the bird's detriment, as when feather chewing, screaming, or roaming behaviors fill the bird's waking hours.

For a healthy social environment for a Budgie parrot, the bird should eat with its flock.

I see many—sometimes severe and diverse—behavior problems in individual companion parrots that are visually isolated from the flock (human) eating area. A single bird that cannot watch other creatures eat will often develop unhealthy behavior patterns such as feather chewing, anorexia, compulsive eating, food slinging, hyperactivity, depression, or—most commonly— screaming.

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