Disco, the amazing parakeet that can’t stop talking, has just released another video called “Define Parakeet.” If that doesn’t make your day, then you haven’t met this incredible bundle of energy from Rochester, NY. Hatched in May 2010 as a birthday gift for Judy Bolton’s then 6-year-old daughter, Disco already knows around 70 phrases, most of them used to hilarious effect in his latest outing.
Fans of the hilarious parakeet’s videos know that he can bark, meow, and say, “I love you” in Swedish. I suppose you can also say that he knows a bit of Japanese, since he sang, “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto. Domo! Domo!” in a previous video called “Ooh lá lá Disco!” which has already attracted over a quarter of a million visitors on Disco’s You Tube channel.
Now, I realize that the doubters among you may be scratching your head and wondering if Disco is for real. Bolton told reporter Elizabeth Batt, “He is not a fake. I have better things to do than fake parakeet videos.”
I, for one, have no reason to doubt her. I wrote for Bird Talk magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and budgerigars (the more accurate name for what most Americans call parakeets) were time after time voted one of the best talking parrot species.
In one survey of 65 budgies, described in my book Parakeets Today , the average number of words spoken by pet parakeets was 25 words. However, 10 of the birds spoke more than 100 words, and the top bird spoke 400 words. I will admit that the survey might be a little biased, since people with untalented birds probably wouldn’t respond, but it still gives you an idea of just how talkative a well-trained budgie can be.
According to Bird Channel , the website that incorporates Bird Talk , a parakeet named Puck is currently the champion talker in the Guinness Book of Records with a stunning vocabulary of 1,700 words.
But it’s time for me to stop talking to allow you to enjoy this hilarious video.
I look forward to hearing a lot more from Disco — the little bird that uses the whole dictionary to “define parakeet.”
parakeet jibbie and ginko tree (amy halverson) / CC BY-SA 2.0