Rob's Birds
Chester Says

Please read if you love parrots.

Alex	Casey	Jasmine	Bert	Loki	Chester	Boo-boo	Tookie
Baby	Others	Things	Foods	Notes	Likes	Start	Store

Some Things Chester Says --

Chester talks in more than one voice. One is the very sweet "old woman" voice. He also talks in an adult female voice, and in a very gravel-y low-pitched male voice. And he has his own voice, a typical cockatoo "brrr" like a purr or a slow-speed growl -- for now, you'll have to imagine what English sounds like in that voice, but I'm going to try recording Chester and the others, and will post samples on the website.
When Chester speaks in a particular voice, he often is "replaying" things that were said to him by that person.

Chester will nod and/or say 'yes' or 'yeah' to indicate agreement or to answer yes to a question. The other birds don't reliably do this.

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June 11, '07
One of the birds started fussing a bit, long after bedtime, and kept fussing long enough for Bert to start honking, so I went to the birds' room to try and quiet them. A few minutes later, everybody was quietly settling down to go back to sleep, and I was telling them each 'good night' when Chester told me, "Good job!"
(For the last year or so, I've been telling Loki 'good job' when he helps me change the papers in his cage.)

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5-7-07
While Tookie was visiting the boys and chattering away in cockatoo, Chester waited til she paused, then leaned closer to her and said, "hello, sweetheart!"
Another day, Chester announced, out of the blue, "I am not a chicken!"

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4-14-07
Today I had Loki out for some petting and grooming, and he was being very sweet -- he even cuddled. He went back in his cage nicely, then jumped back out onto the floor, and chomped my finger when I offered him a lift. I got him to let go, and he jumped back into his cage by himself. I wrapped up my bleeding fingertip, and told him that was not nice, that was an ouch, good birds do NOT bite mom, and showed him the damage he'd done. When I came upstairs to get a bandage, the other birds started yelling at Loki in both cockatoo and English. I heard Chester scolding him, then Chester said indignantly, "I love Robin!" before switching back to cockatoo.

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4-9-07
Jasmine has been more 'clingy' - wanting to be out more, wanting to be on me when she's out. She misses Casey, so we were talking about that, and Chester said "Yeah, miss Case -- it hurts." And Alex said "yep" and puffed up his feathers and scrunched his head down into his shoulders. He knew Casey the longest. (I had never heard Chester say 'it hurts' before this.)

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Feb 07
Chester, Jasmine, and I were talking one day, and at one point Chester observed, "That's a cockatoo for you." (Chester considers Jasmine a 'green cockatoo' -- Jasmine does not talk "people-talk" but she communicates well in her own.)

September '06
Sometimes, the glimpses I get of his life with previous owners move me to tears.

One morning as I was feeding the birds, Chester started talking in the very sweet "old woman" voice. He hadn't done that for a while, so I listened. At first, it was the usual greetings and sweet-talk, "Hi, Chester. Hello, Chet. What a pretty bird. Yes, you are a pretty bird, Chester. A good bird. I love you." -- and such like.
And then I heard, "I have to tell you something. It's a secret. I'm sick."
When he continued with the sweet-talk, I could hear the old woman's voice breaking. I had to stop filling food bowls... As soon as I could, I went over to Chester, and thanked him for telling me that, and told him, "She really loved you." He nodded a little, and said quietly, "yeah."

I told my sister what he'd said, and she wondered if Chester understood what it meant. I don't think so, but he remembered it -- maybe because it was one of the last times she talked to him, more likely because that's when everything changed....

Over the next few days, there were a couple more related bits. One day, I heard the old woman's voice saying "(garble-garble) will take care of you." And the next day, I heard the gruff gravely male voice saying several times (between cuss-words), "Gotta get rid of Chester."

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8-24-06
Today while I was feeding the birds, Chester started talking in a very clear young-adult-woman's voice I'd never heard him use before. This voice was so distinct, I almost thought I had company when he said "Hi!" He continued on in the same voice with "hi, Chester -- hi, pretty bird -- hello, Chet" and then he said "Hi, lover!"
I stopped what I was doing, and asked him, "Someone used to tell you 'hi, lover'? Who used to call you that?"
Chester fluffed out his feathers, looking pleased with himself, and said "Yeah" followed by some garbled speech I couldn't make out, then said, "Yeah, and Lover-bird."
So I asked him, "Do you know the name of the girl who called you that?"
He said "Yeah," and nodded, but said nothing more.
So I asked him if it was a name I thought I maybe heard in his garbled speech -- that earned me a glare. Then I asked if it was "D---" the teenaged daughter from his previous home, and he popped up his crest and nodded several times. (Now, that could be a "yes" or it could just be he remembers her fondly, she was his favorite person in that household. -- I checked with them, and D-- says she doesn't think she ever said that to him. I also asked N---- the bird-sitter, and she said she had not told him that)

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July '06
Chester can say "cockatoo" and often uses it in phrases. One day after listening to him practicing -- "I'm a cockatoo, yeah. Chester is pretty cockatoo" and similar phrases, I asked him, "What is Boo-boo? What kind of bird is Boo?"
Chester said, "He's a cockatoo."

I told Chester, "Very good -- yes, he is. Boo-boo is a cockatoo." Then I asked, "What is Jasmine? What kind of bird is Jazz?"
Chester considered, then said "Pretty bird." I agreed. After a bit longer, Chester said, "Green cockatoo."

I think that's pretty impressive. Nobody would have taught him "green cockatoo." I sometimes call Casey and Jasmine the "green girls," more often "little green parrots."

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June '06 -- Chester said, "I love the cockatoo kid." He laughs when Tookie yells at the other birds.
(I've been telling the boys that Tookie is just a baby, a little kid.)

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June 2006

I asked Chester what food would he like, maybe not today, but if he could have something more?
Chester considered a bit, then said, "Like peanut butter...on cracker." I told him, "I don't have any today, but I can get some at the store later." Chester said, "Okay." After another minute, he said, "Chocolate. Like chocolate. Good stuff."
I asked him, "You had chocolate?" Chester said, "Had some once." I told him I know chocolate tastes good, but it's not good for birds, and asked him if he felt okay after he had chocolate? Did he feel excited or sick? Chester said, "A little." I told him I'd get peanut butter for him when I went shopping.

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May '06
The first time I brought Tookie down to meet the other birds, Chester said "pretty bird" when we came in. As we were leaving, he said, "Pretty girl. I could love."
Since then he says "I love her" several times during every visit, and sometimes "love pretty bird girl."

2005

One morning while feeding the birds, I noticed Chester seemed to be trying to chew on his trimmer perch -- so I dug out a mineral block that Alex had turned into little pieces, and gave everybody a piece or two. Pretty soon I look over at Chester, and he's bouncing just a little with his cheek feathers fanned over his beak. I asked him, "Chester, are you happy? Are you happy bird?"
And he said, "Yes I am. (nod, nod) I got a present!" Then he picked up his piece of mineral block and did a little swaying and head-turning. Yep, he's happy!.

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A while ago, Chester started singing the "I Love --" song, "I love Chester, I love you, I love Alex, I love pretty birds, I love - (pause) - I love Mister Bert, I love you." It was definitely "mister", not Chester, and completely cracked me up, Alex and Loki, too.
More recently, Bert had been inside his bag for a while -- when he came out, Chester came over as close as he could, and said, "hello, Mister Bert!"

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Chester is practicing saying my name. When Chester sang the "I love" song not long ago, several times I heard him include "I love buh-beh."
Since I know he can say "oo" sounds and he has said Boo-boo, I think he's working on "Ruh-ben" :-) So I asked him, and he said "I -know- what I'm talking about!"

Chester can now say "Robin" -- which led to:
One day while I was visiting with Bert, Chester said, "I love Bert" then looked at me and said "I love you." I said, "I love Chester. Robin loves Chester."
Chester fluffled out his cheek feathers and said, "Chester love Robin, yes, I do."

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Chester is closest to the stairway. I got everybody fed this morning, and was going to go upstairs to get my breakfast, and I stopped at the stairway door and asked the birds if they'd like me to leave the door open.
Chester said, "Actually, I'd prefer you shut."
I was amazed. So I asked him if he really wanted it shut, and demonstrated briefly. When I peeked back in at him and asked, "Like that?" He nodded-- so I closed the door!

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Chester does not like storms.
One day when there were storms predicted, Chester started talking about "rain, storm, hail, wind, TORNADO!" He sounded like a weather radio. I told him "no tornadoes today." Chester said, "Maybe tomorrow."

Another afternoon, we had a storm front moving in -- Chester was muttering "storm, rain, storm, we're in big trouble!" I told we would just have rain and thunder and wind, we'd be okay, not in trouble. (There were a couple of tornadoes, but not near us.) The next day, I uncovered the birds' windows and saw several small-to-medium branches down in the yard, and commented that the storm had knocked them down -- Chester looked and said, "bad weather." (Yep, it broke the trees, didn't it!)

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The canteloupe I gave the birds one day was approaching over-ripe. Chester checked out his piece, and said, "Not good for birds." -- I told him it was all I had for them that day, and noticed later that he'd eaten it anyway.

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May 2005
One day I thought Chester might like me to switch his food and water bowls, so he could keep an eye on the other birds while he ate. (I'd noticed him sometimes "looking over his shoulder" while eating.) Pretty soon Chester is down by the newly-positioned water bowl, tapping it with his foot. So I'm telling him again why I moved them -- and Chester said, "backwards." I asked him if he wanted them put where they used to be, and he nodded. So I did! Pretty soon he's munching away. Alex asked, "Better?" and Chester said "good."

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I'd run out of the colored Zupreem pellets a couple days earlier. As I was getting Chester his breakfast, I asked him what he would like in his bowl.

Chester said, "Want colored stuff. Taste better."

So I went to the store that day!

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The birds were fussing, making noise, when they should have been settling down for their naps, so I called down to them. Chester responded, "We've got a problem." I went down to check, and found the overhead light was on. Their main lights are on timers, and turn off at nap time. The overhead light is generally left off.

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Feb 2005
After I got everybody breakfast, I told them I was going upstairs, but I'd come back down soon to move Casey into her new house. Chester asked, "Why?"
I told him I had a new house for Casey, like Alex and Jazz have, and I patted Alex' cage. Chester nodded and said "Case like better." I told him I thought she would, too.

2004

One day, I ran several loads of laundry, so several trips up and down stairs during the afternoon. That evening, I got the birds settled for night, and went upstairs to feed the cat. Lil'Bit did not show up as I was getting her food, so I started calling her. Still no cat, so I walked through the main level of the house, calling her. Finally, I heard her meow faintly -- over the bird room monitor. The birds woke up and started talking quietly to each other, and I went downstairs, turned on a light, and called her again. I heard her answering meow from the far end of the room, and pretty soon she came trotting toward me,and ran up the stairs. By this point, Bert woke up and inquired (in cockatoo )what was going on. Alex told him, "Cat" -- and Bert started his alarm call. Alex and Loki scolded him, and I told Bert the cat was gone now, he was all right. Bert quieted down after a couple of plaintive honks, and I turned off the light and went upstairs. Over the monitor, I heard the birds settling in again, starting some beak grinding. Then Alex and Chester started chuckling quietly, Loki joined in, and even Jasmine chortled softly. Then Chester said, "That's funny." After a few more quiet chuckles, all the birds went to sleep.

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Chester's unintelligible talk is usually in his very gravel-y lower pitched (probably male) voice. Some of it is almost understandable, at least a few words, but makes me thankful I can't translate all of it -- "grumble, grumble, bad bird, grumble, Chester, grumble, bad, grumble, rotten, grumble, shut up, grumble" etc.

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Chester cracks me up. One morning, he was talking in that gravelly, mostly garbled voice when I brought Alex over on my arm to see him. Alex decided to "mouth" Chester's cage bars. Chester was watching and said, clear as day, "Bound to happen." I repeated it back to him, adding "Alex touching your cage?" and he nodded twice and said, "Exactly."

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Another day, he said, "Alex talks. Good talker." I agreed. He said, "Chester talks not so good." I told Chester he talks good. He said, "Pretty good for a cockatoo!" and chuckled. Chester uses people-talk appropriately even more often than Alex, and his vocabulary is larger.

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"this afternoon" (once)
-- I told the birds I'd come back after their naptime, and Chester said, "This afternoon"
He also says "Good afternoon" as a greeting at the appropriate time of day.

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Hello, hello Chester, Hi Chester, hi Chet, hi Alex

good bye, good night
-- when Chester wants people to leave, he'll start saying one of these over and over

pretty bird, good bird, bad bird

I love Chester, I love pretty bird, I love you,
I love pretty bird Chester, I love pretty Chester

Chester love

handsome

apple

Alex (or Alec); Bert; Robin; Boo-boo

laughs in several versions, and chuckles

pants like dog (combination of "ha" and hiss)

gives kisses and makes kissing noises

"You'd better tell me, you're in big trouble" (once)

"bad bird, you're in trouble"
Chester tells the other birds this quite often, especially when they're noisy or bouncing. He can also say "quiet."
August '06 -- Chester told noisy Bert, "Shut up!" (Please note, I don't say "shut up" to the birds, or anyone else.)

"Are you talking to ME?" (once)

"See you real soon"

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I think these guys are amazing. Took me quite a while to speak sensibly in a foreign language!

For more things Chester said, check the old mom/new mom dialogue.

Please read if you love parrots.

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