African Grays don't squawk. They whistle and make all sorts of sounds ranging from sawing and hammering to snapping sounds to old car squeals and car alarms. We never taught Buster to speak. Because of his intelligence he is able to observe situations, body language and tone of voice. He is never wrong in his response.
African Grays are masters of imitation. When we start to fry something, Buster starts the "smoke alarm" sound. This would be bad enough but then a real one goes off and then our second one. We then have three smoke alarms sounding off at once!
Most times when we use the microwave, even though Buster can't see us he can hear the microwave door. Just as we push the first number, Buster makes the "microwave beep". Now we aren't sure if we pushed the number or not. I once set a mug of coffee to heat for 444 seconds instead of 45. I had quite a mess to clean up.
He loves to answer the phone and imitating the answering machine. One day he said, "Hello, this is Carol and Dennis"...and he added, and the bird!" He follows up with undetermined jabber as though he is leaving a message.
Our son birdsat only once. Because he worked nights, he slept during the day or at least he tried to do so. When we came home, our son greeted us with bloodshot eyes. Apparently Buster "hammered and sawed" so loudly each day along with all his other sounds and talking, that our son hadn't slept for three days. He never agreed to birdsit again!
Another time our son tried to take a nap on our couch. Next to the couch was a lamp with a copper shade. Well...unfortunately on the other side of the lamp was Buster on top of his cage. As soon as our son put his head down on the pillow, Buster leaned over and starting tapping on the metal shade. No nap for our son that day!
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