#How to Determine Gender of African Grey Parrots

[lassieposting]

OKAY BUT SEE THIS FASCINATES ME

When I was in university I had a Friend who had an African Grey. His name was Hercule Parrot. A little about Hercule: middle-aged, rescued, foul-mouthed, made the lightsaber noise whenever he saw me for unknown reasons.

Hercule loved girls. All girls. Friend was his, like, bond-partner, or whatever, but he would actively seek out interaction with girls who came over. He had the run of the apartment, so every time I visited Friend, I would be approached by Hercule, ducking his head bashfully, croaking, "Pretty girl! Pretty girl!"

I could pet him. I could hold out my finger, and he'd step onto my hand so I could carry him from room to room. He'd very gently take treats from me, and if I made a kiss noise at him, he'd bump his beak against my chin. A very sweet, cuddly, affectionate boy. Again: like that with all girls.

Friend had a Boyfriend, and Hercule hated him. Boyfriend could not pet or feed Hercule without getting a sharp nip. If Boyfriend walked too close to Hercule, Hercule would screech, "FUCK OFF!" or, sometimes, mimic the burglar alarm noise to make Boyfriend jump.

At first, Friend thought it was possessiveness. Hercule considers her his life partner, and hadn't ever had to deal with a live-in human partner in his previous home. But after a while, they realised he just didn't like men.

And we - Friend and I - could not for the life of us figure out what metric he was using to determine which human was which gender.

It wasn't boobs or lack thereof. I was incredibly busty, but Friend was flat-chested.

It wasn't hair. Boyfriend had lovely long hair, as did Friend. I, at the time, had a buzzcut.

It wasn't voice tone. Friend introduced one of her buddies to Hercule, this buddy being an mtf trans girl. She had a deep, masculine voice. She still got pretty girled by Hercule.

We never did figure out how he thought human gender worked.

How do they know?