Daybreak and dusk
Is it normal for a parrot to scream in the morning and evening?
Yes, in parrots. Purdue University’s veterinary school and the Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) both describe loud morning and evening calling as normal. The AAV adds that “it may be unrealistic to expect it to change,” and suggests using that time to interact with your bird.
No source says how long normal calling should last, so we do not give a number. This evidence is also about parrots. We found no equal source for canaries and finches.
Normal calling never cancels a sign of illness. The reverse matters too: a usually loud bird that skips the morning calls may be ill.
Source: Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, General Husbandry of Caged Birds · Association of Avian Veterinarians, Behavior: Normal and Abnormal · RSPCA Australia · Merck Veterinary Manual, Management of Pet Birds
Out of sight
What is a contact call?
Parrots use contact calls to find and stay in touch with flock mates and pair mates, and both sexes give them. Calling when you walk out of sight is likely one of these. The strongest evidence comes from budgies. One study of a single African grey points the same way, so for your bird this is a “possibly,” not a fact.
The Merck Veterinary Manual also notes that very closely bonded, hand-raised parrots may call too much when their owner leaves. Whether calling back helps or makes it worse is not established, so raise it with your avian vet if it happens a lot. Our blog post goes deeper on why a parrot screams when you leave.
Source: Tu et al., J Acoust Soc Am 2011 · Colbert-White et al., J Comp Psychol 2011 · Merck Veterinary Manual, Reproductive Diseases of Pet Birds
By species
Which parrots are the loudest?
The Merck Veterinary Manual describes each group in words, not numbers. Use this to set expectations, never to decide that a noise is fine.
| Bird | In Merck’s words |
|---|---|
| Macaws | “screaming voice is very loud” |
| Cockatoos | “very loud when they scream” |
| Amazons | “great talkers and singers, and they’re loud” |
| Large conures | “voice is piercing when they scream” |
| Ringnecks | “piercing, but they tend not to scream as much as many other parrots” |
| Quakers | hand-reared birds are “fairly good talkers. Sometimes loud.” |
| Eclectus | “not as prone to screaming as cockatoos and macaws” |
| Cockatiels | “vocal, but relatively quiet, compared with macaws or cockatoos” |
| Small conures | “relatively quiet” |
| Lovebirds | “sweet voices, not usually loud” |
| Parrotlets | “quiet, compared with other parrots” |
| Budgies | “not usually loud” |
| Finches | “not loud, but peep frequently” |
Merck says African greys “do not scream, but do growl.” Treat that as a general description, not a rule. Do not use it to explain away a noise your grey is making. A new or changed noise gets the same health checks as in any other bird.
We give no decibel figures. No trusted scale exists for each species, and phone microphones are not calibrated.
Source: Merck Veterinary Manual, Popular Pet Birds (table) · Osmanski and Dooling, J Acoust Soc Am 2009
Health
When is bird screaming a sign of illness?
Volume alone is not a diagnosis. What counts is a change from your own bird’s usual noise.
Noise plus any of these is an emergency
- Tail bobbing with each breath
- Beak open while resting, or the neck stretched to breathe
- Huddled, weak, off balance, or sitting low or on the cage floor
- Bleeding that does not stop, or a seizure
- Any chance your bird breathed fumes, smoke or spray
Go to an avian vet or emergency clinic now. A calm or normal sound never cancels these signs. Here is what to do on the way.
Call your avian vet if the noise has changed
- Screaming is new, or the pattern has changed. Vets usually start with a medical workup.
- An older bird is calling far more than before. Excessive vocalization is a listed sign of arthritis, so your vet may check for it.
- The voice sounds hoarse, raspy, squeaky or wheezy, or a whistle or word sounds different. See an avian vet within a day.
- A usually noisy bird has gone quiet. A silent bird can be very sick.
No source sets a deadline in hours. The within-a-day timing is our own advice, the same as the app’s.
No sound is a proven pain call. Loud calling does not prove pain, and silence does not rule it out.
Source: Merck Veterinary Manual, Illness in Pet Birds; Geriatric Diseases of Pet Birds; Management of Pet Birds · Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine · Gaskins and Bergman, J Avian Med Surg 2011 · MSPCA-Angell
What helps
How do I get my parrot to stop screaming?
You may never stop morning and evening calling, and you do not need to. For other screaming, see your avian vet first, because a new noise can be a health sign. Once a medical cause has been looked for, this is what veterinary behavior sources advise:
- Do not reward screaming with attention. Reward quiet instead.
- Never punish. The AAV strongly recommends reward-based training over forced or punishment-based methods.
- Add foraging. The AAV says it can fill 40 to 75 percent of a wild parrot’s daytime, against typically 30 to 60 minutes a day in a home. Start simple and build up.
- Review the whole day: food, housing, enrichment and company. Birds are social and can get lonely.
- Nesting or laying? Frequent calling can be reproductive behavior. Review day length, diet and nest areas with your avian vet.
Source: ASPCApro, Managing Behavior Issues in Pet Birds (Tynes, DACVB) · Gaskins and Bergman, J Avian Med Surg 2011 · Association of Avian Veterinarians, Basic Care for Companion Birds; Foraging for Parrots · Merck Veterinary Manual, Behavior of Pet Birds
In ParrotSense
Put a call in context, in the app
- Pick a category, Everyday, Left alone or Breathing / health, then record a call
- Flag anything worrying before the reading, such as Voice or whistle sounds different. Afterward you can note what was happening, such as Daybreak / dusk
- Your bird’s species is part of the reading, so a loud species is not flagged for volume alone
- See the likely meaning, how sure the app is, what to do next and when to call your avian vet
- Health signs you report show fixed warnings straight away, whatever the sound. Every reading is a possibility, never a fact
Launching first on iPhone and iPad, with Android and Amazon soon after.
Questions
Frequently asked
Why does my parrot scream all day?
My bird suddenly stopped screaming. Is that good?
Should I call back when my bird screams for me?
Will covering the cage stop screaming?
Is my bird screaming because of pain?
ParrotSense reads your bird’s calls together with what you tell it, then suggests what to do next. It does not diagnose, and your avian vet is always the authority.
See how the call analysis works