Merlin The Talented African Grey

Merlin, The Talented African Grey

Merlin is a 4-year-old hand-reared African Grey who has just won the Talented Bird Class at the National Cage & Aviary Birds Exhibition for the third year running. I don't believe he is an exceptionally clever bird but I do spend a lot of time interacting with him and training him by positive reinforcement. I.e. Clicker and food rewards.

When we chose Merlin we spent a lot of time reading as many books as we could and absorbing information about all parrots. The book that seemed to make the most sense was "The Guide To A Well Behaved Parrot" by Mattie Sue Athan. It very quickly became obvious to us that Parrots are extremely intelligent and capable of far more than being a talking ornament in a cage!

When we bought Merlin home he was lightly clipped but was given plenty of flapping exercises to develop his chest and wing muscles. He soon moulted and has been a fully flighted bird ever since. He is a true member of the family who joins in all our daily activities as well as coming away on holiday with us.

The very first behaviour that we trained was to "Hop On" - i.e. Step up onto our hands when asked. This was done by rewarding with lots of praise and attention. We then started to read about the amazing African Grey called Alex and his trainer Dr Irene Pepperburg and we thought that this was about the best way to improve and stimulate his natural intelligence and give him things to think about and work at. We also learned about the click/treat training concept as used for dogs, cats etc.

After trawling the Internet we found the following site, which gave us the basic ideas for all the tricks he does now:
http://community-2.webtv.net/Lincomacaws/ClickingwithBirds

I started the training by taking him into the spare bedroom and placing him onto the back of a chair and asking him to "give us a paw" - shake hands. This was done by picking up his foot with my left hand, click/treating. He soon realised that the click/treat happened quicker if he lifted his foot as soon as I asked, rather than waiting for me to pick his foot up. Waving was done in much the same way but using my left hand so he realised it was a different action. Holding the treat just to the left of his head did "Turn around". I made a circular motion with my hands as the cue. Being such a greedy little bird he then naturally turned around to get the treat. The treat was held a little further away each time until a full 360 degrees was required before he got the click/treat. "Big bird" was done by me pointing with both hands under his wings. He is not a particularly tactile bird so was more than happy to raise his wings away from my fingers to receive the click/treat.

His talents now include such things as putting money in a moneybox, "birdie style" basketball and identifying colours. He really seems to enjoy his training and gets very excited when I provide him with new challenges to work at.

Now - do you have a pet parrot? And if so, how about trying a little training? Do some reading and learn the basics of clicker training and he may surprise you with his willingness and ability to learn new things. It is more than likely that your pet would be a candidate for the Talented Bird competition at the NEC next year and would give Merlin some serious competition! Don't think that The National is just for "experts" - the Talented & Talking Bird classes are ideally suited to your pet bird and you!