Documentation of training procedure of speech mimicry of oratory bird species: common myna (acridotheres tristis)

• Main Author: Nur Zur ' Ain Rahim
• Format: Undergraduate Final Project Report
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/5909/

To study the speech mimicry in common myna (Acridotheres tristis), is one of the channels to understand vocal learning in birds. Common myna has the ability to mimic voices and sounds just like parrots, hill myna, and other talking birds. Although common myna birds have become an invasive species in some countries, they are often chosen as pets for their ability to mimic human speech. This study was carried out in order to document the oratory training procedure of common myna by local trainer, and to understand the speech mimicry of common myna. A sample of common myna owned by a local trainer from Jeli, Kelantan, has been studied by interviewing and documenting the training procedures practiced by the trainer. The results showed that the variation of vocal learning ability is depending on the individual bird. There are several factors that are important when training common myna, these are; the bird's mental and physical health, training of the bird by the age of six month, trainer and bird bonding, location of the bird's holding cage, repetition of vocabularies or sentences, patience, rewards, and proper record keeping book. However, the use of mechanical sound device such as tape recorder is not recommended since it does not help in the mimicry training of the common myna.