How many of your birds are closet talkers? If they are, to what extent? Or do you have show off birds?

Ollie will talk in front of anyone, anytime-she's a bit of a show off. Sometimes when I just get home I will stand outside the door and listen to her. She'll be talking, but she'll also continue talking when I'm in the room. She doesn't say any more when she thinks she's alone than when she's got an audience. She'll even practice words and phrases in front of me, so I get to hear them as they progress from nearly unintelligible things to clear words.

Of course, if there is a large crowd of people all staring at her waiting for her to talk, she won't. But as soon as she's getting ignored, she'll start up her repertoire of phrases!

Dakota will also talk in front of anybody, especially if my mom is the one talking to him. He will do anything to please her.

As far as I know, Ducky is my only closet talker. He only talks once in a great while, and his voice is so soft you can barely hear him. I've heard him say pretty bird, but couldn't make out the rest of what he was saying.

Tommaso is a closet talker. When I'm in the office I can hear him say, "kisses", "Give me Kisses", "What are you doing?" and
a few other words that I can only guess what he's saying. When I walk into the room where he is, he stops talking and just starts chirping like normal. He thinks I didn't hear him.
I tried to quietly tape him, but he always hears some noise on the recorder and doesn't say anything. Somehow he knows....

Jerry's a show-off talker But he also talks to his toys and the cats when I'm not in the room. He used to be more of a closet talker and practice new words when no one was in the room, but now that he's more comfortable with English he'll babble on and on anytime, when anyone is over - he actually shocked me that he started talking in his carrier as we were getting ready to leave the vet's office. I was talking to Lara and the vet and from the carrier I first hear lots of kissy noises and he started mumbling a bunch of stuff. Then out in the waiting room as I was paying the bill I hear "I love you!" I figured he would be too nervous to say anything at the vet's, but I guess not!

Scarlett is ours. She is just learning so she talks quietly and usually when we are out of the room. Probably because she knows that will get our attention and we will come back. Doyle talks up a storm constantly (especially when you are watching a TV show you are really interested in, lol).

Tiki will talk to me, or a crowd of people... but she practices in *whisper*.

Red talks to Dad, and sometimes to Mom and my hubby... he actually doesn't talk to me very much when he's on me (other than "want some" "big wings" "hi" and "ooooh").... and if he's talking like he was on the video I posted, and I walk in... nope, forget it. Not gonna say nuttin! He will NOT talk to strangers.

Merlin talks mostly if I'm in the room as opposed to the other family members. BUT...the other night a neighbor came over and with him being in the living room he takes the liberty to jump in on any conversaton when he feels he has something to offer; which is usually comic effects. I had been working on "Peek-A-Boo" and he got it in one day, very proud of him BTW. My husband asked him to say it and I, thinking I KNOW him, said "oh, he won't say it, we need to look away." Wouldn't you know it no sooner did I get the words out of my mouth he started showing us how well he knew how to say "Peek-A-Boo". What the heck do I know?!?!?!?!
It is fun to try to figure out what he is trying to work out though. Sounds like turning the dial on an old radio to me trying to find that station you want. Gotta love 'em!!!

LOL this reminds me of what Jerry does - he listens to the radio during the day and I wonder if his radio sometimes goes staticy because he makes this radio-static noise all the time LOL. He usually does it right before launching into a bunch of speaking but it does sound like he's tuning a radio and then all of a sudden he'll break into words like he found the station

ms. bella is talking up a storm whenever she's with her daddy... not a single clear word, but still... she even talks to me on the phone - "memmmeeeem quack quack meee" "and then what happened?" "quack quack quack"
valo doesn't talk much neither when i'm there or not - recently he's picked up something though which sounds awfully close to pita's "good boy" "i'm a good boy!" "quack quack"

you got to love the quack quack bit.