Well, at least Tomi believes this to be true. Tomi (pronounced "toe-me") is a Timneh African Grey of unknown age (figured to be around 3 years old). He had a couple of owners before me, one of which was an icky pet store. Needless to say, he came to me with a lot of bad memories to get past. However, since September '95, when I bought him, we've made a ton of progress and he's now the sweetest, funniest bird in the world. He has an extensive vocabulary and quite an assortment of noises. Some of his favorite words and phrases are: HEY!, Come here!, wanna nut, wanna grape, good morning, wanna come out (when he gets "cage time" for bad behavior), gooood booy!, hello, see ya later, bye, YUP!, ok. He does a wonderful imitation of a truck backing up (BEEEP, BEEEP, BEEEP), the microwave, a squeaking door, me sneezing & blowing my nose, coughing. Tomi, as I think with all Greys has a strange sense of humor. When I'm eating something he really wants, he'll make very loud crunching, chewing noises every time I take a bite. His very favorite thing to do is make knocking sounds and then say, "hello?" This scares me half to death since it sounds like someone has just walked into my apartment! I think he enjoys watching me jump up to see if someone is at the door. He also insists on calling me Sue though I keep telling him my name is Sandra. He'll yell, "Hey Sue!! Come here!!" to get my attention. sigh. What a little joker. Anyway, Tomi is an official member of the CAGTAG-L internet mailing list. You can read more about this mailing list for African Grey owners and get to meet some of its members. I've set up another whole page just devoted to adorable TOMI PICTURES if you'd like to see more of this rambunctious Timneh African Grey! Note: this page takes a VERY long time to load, but it's worth it! Trust me!

Tomi's a Talkin' Bird!!

All the sound files here are in AIFF format. NOTE: To hear these files you'll need Netscape 3.0 or higher which comes with the Live Audio plug-in. If you have an earlier version of Netscape, you may have to download an audio plug-in such as Beatnik. I've included files sizes even though the majority are very small. There are a few rather large files but they are worth listening to. I was amazed to get recordings of Tomi speaking as he's not the most cooperative bird when it comes to talking. For the longest time, noone believed me that he could talk at all! Most of these recordings were done over a couple days. I was very lucky. I hope you get a kick out of hearing Tomi's vocalizations. AND, if anyone ever asks you, here's proof that Timneh African Greys can talk just as well as Congos. (I guess it's mistakenly thought that Timnehs don't speak as well as the Congos. I don't know very many Greys but I think Tomi does pretty well. *wink*) ENJOY!
= these are my favorites

Words & Phrases	Size		Noises	Size
Hello - Tomi using my mother's voice	27k		Laughing	99k
Hello - using his Swedish accent ;-)	22k		Coughing	22k
Hello Timmy - using his old name. He was named Timmy before I bought him.	21k		Nose blowing - this is the grossest and most obnoxious noise he makes! YUCK!	37k
Good Morning - this is how Tomi wakes me up every morning and tells me to uncover his cage.	31k		Lovebird call - this is his immitation of my lovebird	45k
Good Morning - another version	25k		Cat meow - a very scary one!	40k
See ya later	21k		Cat meow - another version	33k
Good Night - this is his newest phrase	16k		Dying Elk - well, that's what it sounds like to me!	83k
Good Night Tomi - I have no idea what he says after "Tomi" though	25k		Quackin' Cat - you tell me!	101k
Good Night talk - this is a very cute exchange Tomi and I had with him repeating "good night" after me.	289k		OWW!	28k
Wanna nut - Tomi's favorite phrase though he doesn't always get what he asks for!	13k		Ray Gun	127k
Wanna chip - one of Tomi's favorite treats is a "health chip" made from yams. His pronounciation isn't great on this one.	14k		Weird Noise - this is the best noise!	55k
What? What?	28k
Step up!	26k
Pretty Birdy - what's funny is that Tomi uses a stereotypical "parrot" voice when he say this. I've never heard him use this voice for any other words or phrases.				21k
Timmy - this is him saying his old name in what I guess to be his previous owner's voice.				12k
Come here, come on, step up. - Tomi likes to put several phrases together to make long sentences. Sometimes the phrases are related, as in this one, but sometimes he randomly puts words together to make very funny sentences. One day he repeated, "Good morning grape!" over and over. Go figure.				51k
Bye bye, come on, stepup, good boy! - I don't know where the "bye bye" came from but the rest is something I usually say when I pick him up.				102k
CONTEST
Tomi often speaks at length in his very own language. I've recorded some of his mystery monologues but have no idea what he's saying. I thought it would be fun to let you visitors offer your interpretations! I'm at a loss! The most interesting entries will be posted for all to see. ;-) Now remember, let's not be crass! When you're ready to take a stab at interpreting the mystery sounds, just go to the entry page and good luck. If you don't want to submit an entry just have fun listening to the sound files! They're really funny! Mystery 1 (70k) Mystery 2 (47k) Mystery 3 (90k) Mystery 4 (58k) Mystery 5 (78k) OK, I'M READY TO GUESS!

Tomi asking for a head scratch

"I sure hope someone sees me holding my head"
"I'm going to fall asleep if someone doesn't scratch my head soon..."
"YEA! A head scratch!"
"Hey, where'd that finger go?!"

As you can see, Tomi has a very funny way of asking for a head scratch. He is also a wonderful dancer. You can see pictures of him doing his famous "Tomi-dance". It's accompanied by a very enthusiatic head bob which we couldn't catch in still-photos. However, if you have Netscape 2.0 or higher, you can see an animated "Tomi-dance".

Other Grey Parrots

Jing, the Timneh African Grey

This is Jing, a Timneh African Grey. She teaches Tai Chi with her human Jane in Marin County. She is a very social out-going Grey who loves to entertain people with her birdie gymnastics. As with most African Greys, Jing uses words and phrases cognitively. She will ask to go places by saying "UP!" and will ask for more treats or head scratches with a very cute "more?" Jing also writes her own birdy column on "human behavior". Her Pet Human Report is a humorous look at us humans through the eyes of our parrots. If you'd like to brighten your day, definitely visit this page!

Here Tomi is saying "hello" to Jing. Even though Tomi and Jing get along well, they are not allowed to hang out together unsupervised. Tail pulling would eventually ensue. They are very content to vocalize back and forth from separate perches and have even picked up words and phrases from each other.

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Last revised 9/19/97