Sinbad
Sinbad
Timneh African Grey
Unsexed (but referred to as female)
Approximately 18 Years Old
Sinbad is my late grandfather’s pride and joy, and was his living legacy for the many years after his death in which she talked and sounded exactly like him. We have his picture of him and my grandma, plus him in his younger years placed behind the top of her cage as seen above. She is currently my mother’s eternal two-year old child, stuck in her terrible two’s.
Grandpa was quite the handyman. He’d go around to yardsales, buy stuff, take it home and fix it up, then sell it again at his own yardsale. At one yardsale, he came across a family giving away two Cockatiels. He gave one to my mom for us kids to have as a pet, and kept the other for himself. Thus began his passion for training birds. After some time, he came across a man selling several 10 month old African Greys and Amazon Parrots. Being an animal lover and former petshop owner in his youth, Grandpa decided that he’d take them, and gave his Cockatiel “Fella” to us to keep while he moved on to training these larger birds. Eventually he realized he took on way too much to handle and sold all of the parrots except two: Sinbad, a Timneh African Grey, and Julio, a Lilac Crested Amazon.
Sinbad became his instant favorite once she began to talk. He would take both of the birds into the back bedroom of the house each day for a “school session”, in which they would listen to a tape of the same thing each day in hopes of getting them to mimick it and talk. Every time he took them in there, he’d say to them “Let’s go to school!”. Finally one day my grandma heard someone say “Let’s go to school”, and although it sounded like Grandpa, it wasn’t. It was Sinbad.
Julio never learned to talk, but Sinbad will talk up a storm. Grandpa unfortunately did not get to spend much time at all with his beloved birds before he passed away to cancer in 1995, and for many years, Sinbad was a comforting voice for my grandmother to listen to. She sounded exactly like my grandpa. But as the years went by, she gradually picked up new words, and lost her old ones (since Grandpa was no longer there to say them), and now she sounds like my grandmother. Although Sinbad and Julio were both left in Grandpa’s will to go to my mom, Mom decided that it’d be best that grandma keep them since they were Grandpa’s most treasured companions. Not to mention the fact that Sinbad’s voice was Grandpa’s.
As of last September, Grandma decided it was time for Sinbad to move in with us in our home. African Grey’s are very hyper birds that bore quite easily. Sinbad had gotten into the habit of climbing down from her playstand atop her cage and chewing at the wallpaper on the wall behind her. Other times, she would fly (if her flight feathers had grown back in), or hop down and walk over to various places around the house to either find Julio (to Julio’s dismay) or to go chew up the bookcase. Grandma got to the point of where she could not trust her to be outside of her tiny 16″x16″ cage, which meant extreme boredom for Sinbad. She got into a routine of plucking her feathers out of boredom. Realizing she would be better off in another home, we took her in.
I placed an ad in the Recycler looking for someone who had a nice big parrot cage that they would sell me decently priced. My mother’s birthday was in September and on the week that we went down to bring Sinbad to our house. I decided the birdcage would be a nice birthday present. Little did I know that I wouldn’t have to be spending a penny, as a very nice lady in our town offered to give us an old cage of hers, free of charge. It’s a large, 5 foot tall, 3 feet wide corner cage, and Sinbad absolutely loves all the room. In fact, after spending so many years in such a small cage at Grandma’s house, Sinbad has no desire whatsoever to even leave her cage. She would prefer to be inside it or on top of it at all times, but never away from it. She’s led such a sheltered life in a quiet home for so many years, and hasn’t been introduced to too many things, such as new fresh foods and toys. We’re gradually introducing these “scary” things into her life, and she’s taking baby steps, but she’ll get there eventually.
As for Sinbad’s intelligence and vocabulary…she’s quite a smart bird. She picks up on the intonation of your voice when deciding upon which words she’ll use to interrupt your conversation. If you sound angry or upset, she’ll be quick to say “Shame! Naughty boy/girl (depending on whichever she feels like using. She says both “naughty boy” and “naughty girl”). If you’re giving a dog a treat and she notices, she’ll make a noise like a kiss and say “Good boy~”, mimicking my grandma praising her male dogs with a kiss on the forehead. The dogs could be barking at a knock on the door and she’ll be quick to tell them “No barking!”, as my Grandmother would often scold her Shelties Cagney and Buddy for nuisance barking at the phone ringing or even the littlest of noises. She’ll ask “Want a peanut?” if she wants a peanut, “Eat your grapes” or “Did you eat your grapes?” when she wants grapes (which are given to her daily, otherwise she won’t stop talking about them). If you say “Sinbad, what are you doing?”, she responds “Huuuuh?”. She will sing “I love you, a bushel and a peck”, and end the song right there. She used to make attempts at “I left my heart in San Francisco”, but preferred to change the lyrics to “I left my— Cisco~~” and ended it there. She can wolf whistle and make a whistle like a firework, as well as mock you when you cough, sneeze, or sigh. She really enjoys mocking people. One of her favorite things, however, is to carry on conversations with herself, in which she plays the role of herself and my grandma. It’s quite interesting to hear your bird recite an entire conversation in which my grandma scolded her for chewing up the papers on the bottom of her cage, or ruining the wallpaper and bookshelf.
“Sinbad?” she’ll say. “What did you do? Naughty girl. You’re a shame. Shame on you. Why did you do that? Get back on your perch. Go on, get back on your perch. You’re bad!”
Other times, she might recite a conversation in which grandma is petting her and giving her kisses. “Sinbad, let me pet your head. Come on. Let Mommy pet you. You want a peanut? Lemme pet your head. Good girl. You’re mommy’s good girl. I love you mommy.” <- These types of her recitals are the most cute to listen to.
Parrots may just mimick, but I truly believe after 16-17 years of being around Sinbad that they understand the situations in which it’s proper to say a certain word or phrase. If I walk up to any of the dogs, she always makes the kissy noise and says “Good boy”. If my mom grabs her coat and purse, she says “Mommy go to the store”, which is what grandma would always tell the animals before leaving. If you mention the cats, she says “Where’s the meow?”. My personal favorite is when she intentionally makes annoying squawking and high pitched noises to get somebody to tell her to stop, and then she proceeds to scold herself saying “You stop that. Shame on you.” and goes through her whole vocabulary of it. She pays very close attention to everything that goes on in the livingroom, and it’s amazing how she responds verbally depending on what she sees and hears. They say these parrots have the mentality of a two year-old child, thus why I call her my mother’s eternal two year-old. Terrible two’s because of how mischievous she is.
Definitely an interesting and very unique pet. She’s only two years younger than me, which feels kind of odd in many ways. To think that these birds live up to 60 or so. She’s a living family heirloom pretty much, haha. I do love her very much so though, even though she’s pretty bratty. The only person she won’t try to nip at still is grandma. You have to be VERY nice and convincing that she’ll get something good in return if you want her to come out on your hand or arm, or to pet her. Otherwise she just tries to intimidate you to get a rise out of you just so she can go and scold herself. Nutty bird.
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