A Video of Marcus

[MarcusCAG]

Today I managed to get out the video camera and turn it on without Marcus noticing, and then I hid behind the wall in the kitchen and was able to shoot this video of him. It's longer, about seven minutes; he's just being a little goofy up on his Boing and he whistles waaay more in this clip than normal, but he's pretty cute... I think, haha. Anyway, just thought I'd share!

 

[danmcq]

I enjoyed this video. It he has a large set of whistles and sounds. At one point, he sounded as if he was making the sounds of a piccolo or flute. One thing he did that was puzzling, is making a clicking/snapping sound and shaking his head. Do you suspect the previous owner tapped his beak with an object?

 

Thanks for sharing this. I hope to see many more.

[birdhouse]

LOL!! Phenix said to tell Marcus, "Hello. BoopboopBOOP BOOP Boopboop BOOP! BoopboopBOOP BOOP Boopboop Boopboop BoopBOOP!" Whatever that means. But he thought it was important enough to repeat it a number of times so he was sure I got it right. :rolleyes:

 

Charm said to tell I assume Beaker (her version of), "WOW! WHO'S THE GREAT SOUNDING BIRD IN THE BACKGROUND? WHY'S THE DUMB GREY BIRD GETTING ALL THE FACE TIME? YOU CAN TALK TO ONE OF THEM ANY TIME! I REALLY WANT TO SEE MORE OF THE REALLY COOL SOUNDING QUAKER!!! TELL SOMEBODY TO GET THE BIG GUY OUT OF THE WAY & LET THE REAL STAR HAVE A TURN!!" I think I got that right. I kind of started to go deaf somewhere along the way. Max volume most of the way thru the video. Pretty sure you know the decibel level I'm talking about. :eek:

Edited November 3, 2011 by birdhouse

[MarcusCAG]

Val, I'm sorry about the volume! I tried to keep my voice low because I knew it would probably be loud in the video, but I was hoping to prompt Marcus to actually talk a little. Whenever he gets into one of his "Dahlia/Dahli" things, he'll often continue with "Come here!" and "Go lay down!" and--if he's really feeling 'bossy'--a few rounds of "Stop it! Go!... Go!" and such. But, alas, not today. Your Charm probably was hearing Tybalt, if it wasn't Bunsen (who was in the room with Marcus). Tybalt is the little whistling screecher in the deep background... I don't know if Beaker really was audible in this video, actually. How unusual!

 

And Dan: Regarding the head-snapping thing... honestly, I think that might have been due to an influence of one of the YouTube videos Marcus and I watched together yesterday. He was on my shoulder at the computer and so I pulled up some clips of Alex and company, and in one of them Dr. Pepperberg snapped for Griffin to add up and count, which he did at the end of the sequence, and each time he heard the snapping sound, Griffin would shake his head rather like that. Marcus seemed very interested in that part of the video. So I think it maybe made an impression on him and he was imitating that in his own way, for whatever reason. (???) That's kind of what came to my mind, at least, when I saw Marcus do that (I could be quite wrong, though). I've never seen him do that before, not the shaking head with the snapping sound, anyway... I found it a bit odd to watch, which is why I asked him if he was okay or whatever it was I said in the video.

[MarcusCAG]

Oh, and Val I did go in the birdroom and tell Marcus that "a Grey parrot name Phenix likes Marcus!" He got a little ruffly-fluffy.

[JeffNOK]

Marcus seems like a very happy boy! Thanks for sharing.

[Gwen]

Watched your vid !!! (& a few others of Marcus). Yes, indeed, Karen, he is a little taskmaster. Dahlia!! Come here! Go lay down!! Stop it!! Go-Go!!

 

Marcus sounds just like Roscoe!! Come here!! Go lay down!! Hey, Stop it!! Go to Bed!! Go...Go...Go!!! They want to be in charge of everyone in the house !! Roscoe turned his head, listened intensely, and after he finished hearing Marcus, said; "WOW, I like it"!!!

 

Also, watching Marcus on his videos, I noticed that cute little way he uses his foot to express what he's saying & after waving it around, does his little stomp!!! PRECIOUS little soul ...

[Ray P]

Great video of Marcus and no matter what they do they are fun to watch and listen to

[danmcq]

 

Tha beak tapping always bothers me when I watch one her videos. I understand she wants a response and respect her greatly for the work, but it is not something I do, nor would reccomend anyone else to do it either if trying to train a bird.

[birdhouse]

Your Charm probably was hearing Tybalt, if it wasn't Bunsen (who was in the room with Marcus). Tybalt is the little whistling screecher in the deep background... I don't know if Beaker really was audible in this video, actually. How unusual!

 

That's funny! The fids may or may not watch the bird vids. Those two were all over this one. Phenix was doing Marcus' boopboop, so he was easy. I just figured Charm could hear Beaker. But maybe that was her way of approving of Tybalt's contribution.

 

Charm fully believes that fids should be seen but definitely heard! She's always the loudest bird in the house. No specific reason required. lol Good thing I'm pretty good at tuning it out. Until she hits that pitch that makes my skull reverberate. Mad props to whoever designed noise cancelling headphones!

 

PS that 2nd thank you is from Phenix. He appreciates your relaying his message & is looking forward to hearing from Marcus again, soon.

Edited November 4, 2011 by birdhouse

[kave70]

Thanks for sharing. I loved listening to all those sounds. I had Sam watch the video with me, and requested that he repeat any part of the performance. He decided not to...... but we're getting somewhere.

[MarcusCAG]

They want to be in charge of everyone in the house !! Roscoe turned his head, listened intensely, and after he finished hearing Marcus, said; "WOW, I like it"!!!

 

I'm so glad you and Roscoe enjoyed whichever Marcus videos I've posted that you watched together... And I think that's so sweet that Roscoe said that, Marcus really likes watching videos of other Greys online, too!

 

Tha beak tapping always bothers me when I watch one her videos. I understand she wants a response and respect her greatly for the work, but it is not something I do, nor would reccomend anyone else to do it either if trying to train a bird.

 

In this particular video, Dr. Pepperberg didn't tap on Griffin's beak. She snapped her fingers and he twitched his head whenever she made the sound... then he apparently counted the different 'snaps' in his mind and supplied the correct answer at the end: "Four." I have seen videos where she was training Alex and she would kind of push the object toward him so he could feel what it was with his beak; the one I'm thinking of in particular was with Alan Ada (I think that's his name) and it involved learning how to say the word "spoon". By the end of the video, Alex was saying "Ssss... Nnnn!" for the object. I don't think Dr. Pepperberg was tapping on his beak per se as a training technique there, she was just allowing Alex to touch the spoon for reference. But I definitely agree that it wouldn't be a good thing for someone to use such a technique as tapping on the beak to try and dominate their parrot, and/or get a reaction out of them. You never know what might hurt them physically if not simply distance them emotionally on some level.

 

That's funny! The fids may or may not watch the bird vids. Those two were all over this one. Phenix was doing Marcus' boopboop, so he was easy. I just figured Charm could hear Beaker. But maybe that was her way of approving of Tybalt's contribution.

 

PS that 2nd thank you is from Phenix. He appreciates your relaying his message & is looking forward to hearing from Marcus again, soon.

 

I'm glad Phenix and Charm liked the video so much! And I hopefully will get back on track and dust off the camera more often, and shoot some more 'birdie videos' around here--I've been pretty busy lately, I've unfortunately fallen behind with that sort of thing.

 

And JeffNOK, Ray P, kave70: thank you for your sweet comments too! (And Karen, I'm just happy that Sam seemed to enjoy Marcus' goofy antics, too, even if he didn't say anything to you to that effect. Goodness, I personally was hoping Marcus would actually talk a little more during my bit of Candid Camera, but he didn't--he just produced sweet and silly whistles and things. Ah, well. He was having fun, which is what really matters!)

[katana600]

I enjoyed the video of Marcus just entertaining himself and sounding happy. Gilbert had mixed reactions. He flung some food and rattled his dish and made some of his "ZZ Tops" impressions. He climbed to his cage top and hung by one leg and swung around. I am not sure if he was reacting to the sounds of Marcus or rather at me for laughing at Marcus and giving the computer my full attention. I will play it again later when he can sit with me and watch along at the same time. I just loved watching and listening to your happy little guy and the flock in the background too.

[chezron]

He seems very content!