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Teaching your Cockatiel to talk Training Cockatiels, in general, are not great talkers. Females are even poorer talkers. For that matter, different Cockatoo species have different talking abilities Some species talk less than others. But, there are quite a few instances of spontaneous talkers. For example Palm, Sulphur-crested, Umbrella and Little Corella talk less. Cockatiels, Rose-breasted and Goffin Cockatoos talk a little more. Different specimens within the same species have different talking capabilities. Some specimen are so astute that they mimic sounds they hear in their environment. Some birds have been know to mimic the ringing of phones and sounds of other household appliances and the honking of vehicles.

In situations where the bird has been raised from young and it has been able to bond sufficiently with its human flock, birds tend to vocalize more readily. But this is not the rule. Fact is that in spite of some determined effort and a systematic approach, some birds will just not talk. A word of caution at this juncture. Don't teach your bird to whistle before it has learnt to talk. A bird that first learns to whistle before it learns to talk, will never Training learn to talk.

Just as humans are right-handed and left-handed, birds are either left-footed or right-footed. An individual bird is right-footed or left-footed depending on which foot it uses more adroitly. Generally, right-footed birds are better talkers than left-footed birds.

Birds vocalize for many reasons. But most frequently, they vocalize to stay in touch with the flock, alert members of danger and beg for food. In addition, males vocalize to attract females and to defend territory. Most important of all, birds vocalize because they are gregarious and need the constant reinforcement that they are part of a flock.

Because of this innate requirement, birds raised in captivity need to know that they belong to the human family in which it finds itself. When birds do not receive any response to their calls from other members of the family, they begin to scream. A prerequisite to a bird talking or performing tricks is that it feels secure in a flock environment.