Jewel, my Congo African Grey Parrot is checking out the poinsettia from the safety of my hand in this week's jigsaw puzzle.

As always, you may have to scroll over to get the whole puzzle in your computer window. You can make this harder (or easier) by changing the size and shape of puzzle pieces.




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Jewel is now 13 years of age, with a hatch date of July 1, 1996. She has been my companion since January, 1997. She talks almost non stop when no one is looking at her, but is very difficult to get on tape or on video because she clams up when a camera is pointed at her. I am sure that she just wants to be posed correctly for a photo. A few years ago, I did manage to record some of her speech by leaving a small tape recorder beside her cage when I left the room. The quality of the tape was not very good however.

African Grey Parrots are among the best talkers of parrot species. As well as the words, they can capture the tone and voice of the speaker. Jewel speaks mainly in my voice, but she has said "mom" in my daughter's voice on occasion.
When I had a small dog, Jewel would bark in Trixie's voice as well, but stopped doing that shortly after Trixie died several years ago. She has never taken on the sound of any of the large dogs that bark in my home. Jewel also does a wonderful car alarm, usually when I am locking the door on my way out of the house. I assume that someone has a car alarm go off regularly in front of the house when I am not home to hear it myself.




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