The first time a parrot ever spoke to me was Grayson, the grey! We had had him since he was 4 months old and I thought that I may have lucked out and gotten a grey that wouldn’t speak because at 12 months I still didn’t hear him utter a word. Then one day, I was walking past his huge white cage and all I seen is him standing very tall and straight by the front of his cage and he whispered, “Grayson”. I stopped and starting jumping for joy, so excited for the revelation that my Grey did in fact have a voice and his first words were his name, “Grayson”. It sounded like a little baby whispering.
I would say “What’s your name?” and he would respond with his name.
Absolutely amazing!! This was our start to a wonderful vocabulary. He is 5 now and very shy to talk in front of strangers and although I think his vocab should be further along, I’m still in awe when I hear him respond correctly to a question, or singing a tune that we’ve played or calling out another parrot’s names and telling them to step up.
Grayson saying his first word gave me the same feeling as hearing a baby talk for the first time. Joy, excitement and nervousness because you now realize your little baby has hit another milestone and is growing up. I’ll never forget Grayson’s first words, not just because I have it on video but because he was the 1st parrot to talk to me and there was an innocence about him that unfortunately he no longer has hahaha.

Grayson eating an orange