Living with a cockatiel, you may think that it has a pretty good memory. This is because cockatiels are quick learners that can be trained to talk like humans. Also, they can memorize tricks, perform specific tasks and even solve puzzles. But do cockatiels have a good memory?
Do Cockatiels Have A Good Memory? Yes, cockatiels have great memories. They can even recall their owner’s faces and voices after months of being separated. In addition, cockatiels remember a large vocabulary of words and remember the correct pronunciation. Also, cockatiels can memorize the members of their flock, their mates, and their partner’s songs.
Cockatiels use this long-term memory to better interact with their habitat. It plays a massive role in their social behavior, differentiating safe people and birds from threats. Furthermore, cockatiels can remember calls and songs for specific cockatiels and people and use them to communicate better.
Do Cockatiels Have Memory?
Cockatiels are intelligent birds and quick learners, capable of picking up new behaviors and more tricks learned in their day-to-day lives to get food and other resources.
Cockatiels can learn new vocabulary and mimic your voices thanks to their excellent memories. Once a cockatiel knows a new word, trick, or behavior, it can retain that information for years.
On average, cockatiels have a lifespan of 16-25 years. Their memory comes in helpful as a survival mechanism since it allows them to recall flight pathways to food supplies, predators, and other risks in the environment.
Good memory is also beneficial for captive cockatiels. They can imprint on their owners since they can recognize their faces.
Do Cockatiels Remember Their Owners?
Once cockatiels spend enough time with their owners, they learn to recognize them and tell them apart from strangers. This proves that cockatiels recognize faces and store this information in their long-term memory.
This typically takes time and patience to develop familiarity with a cockatiel. However, once you form a close bond, it will recognize you even if you change your appearance. Wearing various attire or altering your hair color are examples of this. In addition, cockatiels can remember their owners more interestingly even after spending months away from them.
However, this is possible because cockatiels learn to memorize both the physical appearance and the human’s voice. On the other hand, they can also differentiate familiar individuals from strangers in photographs. Their memory’s remarkable function allows them to recognize who they can trust.
If you spend more time with your cockatiel, play with it and feed it, it eventually develops a bond of friendship and trust. Once this happens, a cockatiel will more freely express its affection towards you in various ways, such as:
Responding to speech
Once your cockatiel is familiar and comfortable with you, it will react to your speech. This may include contact calls, special chirps, whistles reserved for you, and mimicking. This shows that your cockatiel likes your voice and finds your noises attractive. If your cockatiel does not respond to your speech, do not irritate or pressure it. Instead, give it time to trust you.
They sing with their owners.
Cockatiels love to sing and often do so with the people they love. So if you leave your cockatiel listening to your favorite music, it will learn the words and sing along with you the next time it hears you singing.
Flying towards their owners
As we mentioned, cockatiels can recognize the faces and voices of their owners. Consequently, your cockatiels will be excited to see you or hear your voice whenever you come into their presence.
They may show excitement by flying toward you and landing on your shoulders or perching on your fingers if you can stretch out your hands.
Following their owners around
Cockatiels tend to follow their owners everywhere they go. They probably do this because they feel safe around their owners and know they will meet their needs. Therefore, if you notice your cockatiel is following you to the bathroom, bedroom, or kitchen, it indicates that it recognizes you.
Do Cockatiels Remember Each Other?
Cockatiels can differentiate the calls of familiar birds from unfamiliar ones. This is especially advantageous for those in the wild. It also enables them to find their flock if they get lost from the group. Remember, cockatiels are social birds and are happiest in the company of other members of their species.
However, their ability to memorize different calls also comes in handy during courtship and mating. Male cockatiels mimic the contact calls of their mates to impress them and increase their chances of mating.
Do Cockatiels Remember Their Parents?
Cockatiels remember their parents and will imprint on them during the first few months. Young cockatiels often squawk to draw the attention of their mothers. This allows them to receive maternal care and provisions, such as water and food. Baby cockatiels also scream to signal the presence of predators and prompt their mothers to come to their aid.
As they grow older, cockatiels learn to remember their adoptive parents after spending prolonged periods with humans. Observe its body language if your cockatiel wants to know if your cockatiel recognizes you. If your cockatiel sees you as its parent, it will often cuddle with you or perch on your shoulders whenever it is in your presence.
Another sign that your cockatiel is familiar with you is the flapping of wings. Cockatiel flap its wings as an expression of happiness or excitement. Therefore, if you notice your cockatiel doing this whenever it sees you, it indicates that it feels comfortable and wants to be around you.
Can Cockatiels Remember Faces?
Cockatiels can remember the faces as well as the voices of their owners. Usually, they are able to identify their owners as the people who feed and care for them. Once cockatiels become familiar with an individual, they can quickly identify them even after long periods of separation. So, if you notice that your cockatiel flies towards you whenever you come into the room or respond to your speech, this signals that it can remember you.
Besides remembering people’s faces, cockatiels can also remember the faces of other individuals in their flock. As social birds, cockatiels need interaction with other birds to be happy and healthy. So, unsurprisingly, cockatiels bond quickly with other members of their species and will remember their mates throughout their lives.
The ability of cockatiels to form solid bonds and remember the faces of their mates is quite human-like. Cockatiels will even mourn the death of their partners just as a person would.
Upon the passing of their mate, the surviving cockatiel might call out its deceased partner and fly around desperately looking for the cockatiel. However, while cockatiels eventually move on from this grief, some never take another partner. This shows that cockatiels not only remember their first partner but willfully choose not to replace them.
Do Cockatiels Remember Bad Experience?
Although cockatiels don’t have the same kind of memory as we have, they can form negative associations that we may interpret as ” bad memories.”
For example, does your cockatiel act fearful in the waiting room at the vet’s office? If it is had a negative experience at the vet, it may not remember precisely what scared it so much, but it associates the waiting room with that fear.
However, you can help cockatiels overcome negative associations by replacing them with positive experiences. For example, take a few fun field trips to the vet’s office where no exam occurs. Unfortunately, the stronger the association is, the harder it is to change its memory.
How Long Can Cockatiels Remember?
Cockatiels are a unique species in that they can learn new vocalizations throughout their lives. This impeccable memory and ability to learn makes it possible for cockatiels to acquire a large vocabulary of human speech.
Besides impressing us with their mimicking abilities, vocalization in cockatiels is also integral to the courtship and mating process. Mates know each other by their distinct noises. Since cockatiels are semi-monogamous by nature, the different contact calls that mates produce help them bond with each other.
It is unclear how long cockatiels can remember. However, both research and anecdotal evidence suggest that cockatiels can retain information for an extended time.
During the early courtship days, the male will imitate the female’s call to win her affection. However, female cockatiels don’t typically imitate their partner’s calls but instead prefer males that imitate their calls.
With that in mind, it is integral for wild and captive cockatiels to have a strong memory. Whether that includes remembering words, faces, or songs, cockatiels use their memory daily to interact and go about their day.
