Cockatiels use Mobile phone ring tone as Mating Call!

Oh how funny!! He is calling her, huh? If she likes to talk on the phone they may have something going. So is it just the males that copy the ring tone? Or is it just the males who have learned what it is for?

LOL - I get confused enough between house phone, my cell, and son's cell plus he and I both have different rings for certain people I can just see if we added a bird that did ring tones. This must just be so funny.

LOl... Thats great, how funny. My cockateil is a scream he give you the wolf whistle evrytime you go past his cage, and talks and barks like the dogs.

Jenny this is cute. I used to have a couple of Cockatiels, named Bill & Barbara. They loved each other so much and were a joy to have. He could wolf whistle louder and prouder than any construction worker could ever hope to. I hadn't heard anything about the ring tones until you mentioned it, but it makes sense. They are a very smart bird. Great discussion, thanks for sharing it with us :)

Have you seen the cockatiel that sings the theme from Kill Bill to the significant other? It's on youtube : http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zl5lN3ImYjg My cockatiel, just does the usual wolf wistles, other birds , the washing machine and the emergency vehicles. He has never talked though, a friend of mine had a cockatiel that would call out the names of her daughter and husband just like she did. My previous cockatiel was an excellent wistler, in that you just had to repeat the tune once or twice and he would start singing it immedietly. Each one is different I guess.

LOL that would make a great video if someone taped it.i guess they just must like the sound. a friend of mine had a bird who would yell "beep" when the microwave went off-that was the closest i'd seen:)

This has made me laugh as we have both a male and female cockatiel and when we first got the male one and he was inside he did the "phone" for the first time and he had me fooled for sure. The way our female responds to him now is almost to knock him off his perch as she obviously does not like it! lol If it is meant to be a mating call, he must not have the correct pitch! lol

nope i havent heared it, its my first time to hear it from you, what is the physical description of cockatiel? even birds now like to reinvent tones

Well it sure got a laugh out of me. That is so funny and kind of cute but It makes one wonder if they have a reason for associating the phone ringing and making "love". LOL

considering how prevailant cell phones in society now, its not surprising lol! id expect at least SOME females are responding to it otherwise the males wouldnt continue to use it...though they might just be throwing into their "favorite selections" just to see who might pick up the "phone" lol. i had a grey that was masterful at making the beep noise the answering machine did when there were messages. we kept hearing it every couple of days and there would be no messages, so we thought it was broken and just threw it away..then kept hearing the beeping! little booger bird lol! im sure he found it great fun to see us keep coming back to check the machine too.

LOL. I had a friend who's grandmothers Cockatiel was adept at imitating different things. He was also very good at talking. I remember whenever they looked after the cockatiel while her grandmother was on vacation, they'd be woken at 6am by the cockatiel singing the theme tune to "Neighbours", or imitating the ringing of the telephone and then screeching "Telephone" as loud as possible. LOL. One evening really took the cake though. I was having dinner with them, and my friends younger brother came into the dining room with dirty hands. His father said Go wash your hands you dirty bugger, and quick as a flash, the cockatiel had repeated it. My friend and I had tears streaming down our cheeks with laughing so hard. I'm surprised though that Cockatiels would start to use the ring of the telephone as a mating call. That's really quite amazing.

I have never heard of a bird imitating a phone! When I was a girl, I had a friend who had a myna bird. He came from the pet store with one phrase-- a wolf whistle followed by "whatcha doin? Whatcha doin?" She tried to break him of it, but he kept going nonetheless. A few weeks later he escaped and was found by a jogger. She stopped to stretch and he was above her in the trees, cat calling her! LOL!

LOL! That is quite amusing. I have heard of birds copying noises but never using them as a mating call. Perhaps the females should learn to say : I cannot take your call at the moment but please leave a message.... beeep!

Wow I thought I was the only one that had a cockatiel who sings ringtones! Everytime I tell somebody this, they look at me like I'm nuts. Timmy has quite the lists of songs, as I change my ringtone often. His favorite is Drop it like it's hot, and the adams family theme song. He also has favorite TV shows he watches lol.

That is so neat and funny. I've never heard of cockatiels using a mobile phone ringtone as a mating call. Maybe cats and dogs need to start that.