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European
Starlings have an amazing ability to mimic
many sounds in their environments. We have
heard wild starlings in our tree imitate
car horns and children squealing. Many pet
starlings can mimic the ringing of a phone
or doorbell, an answering machine, a microwave's
beep, a door closing, a dog barking, a person's
sneezes, etc. When mimicking human speech
sounds, a starling's voice sounds quite
different from that of a parrot and more
closely resembles that of a mynah bird.
Read about our starlings' mimicking skills
below, and then listen to their sound files.
Or, skip directly to our starling sound
files below by clicking here.
Our Starlings' Vocalizations
Stormy, Sunshine, and Shadow have large
vocabularies which continue to grow. We
never "taught" them to imitate
human speech. Rather, we have always talked
to them throughout each day (even when they
were tiny nestlings), and in turn, they
have always chosen sounds and words that
they prefer to mimic. They began making
cricket-like sounds (little trills) at only
a couple of weeks old, and before a month
old they were whistling, making jabbering
noises, peeps, growls, and warbles. Soon
they began mimicking household sounds, and
between the ages of three and four months
old each bird began clearly and distinctly
"talking", ie. perfectly imitating
human speech sounds.
In
addition to learning from us, each of our
younger starlings picked up words from our
older bird(s). Our female and male starlings
vocalize equally well. Whenever we speak
to one of them, he or she often responds
by speaking to us in my voice, sometimes
using silly, mixed-up phrases. Each bird
whistles specific tunes and imitates various
household sounds in addition to "talking".
Stormy, Sunshine and Shadow delight family
members and visitors alike with their constant
chatter, and the only time they are quiet
is when they are eating, napping, or preening.
We are often asked why they "talk"
and whistle so much! We think it is partly
because we interact with them and talk to
them daily and keep them in the busiest
room of our home where they see and hear
us all the time. They enjoy being the center
of our attention and vocalizing to us as
much as possible.
Listen
to Two of Our Starlings.
Click below to hear Stormy's or Sunshine's
sound files, or scroll down and hear both
starlings talking and whistling at the same
time. (Note that these
old sound files were recorded in 2000 and
2001 and no longer adequately showcase the
ever-growing vocabulary of our starlings.
We will try to redo this webpage soon and
add updated audio files and videos of all
three starlings.)
When
listening to the files, please be aware
that you may have to turn up your sound
volume.
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