The Voice of the Shatner

I think the term, whisperer to describe a gifted animal behaviour expert has been a bit over-used. Perhaps, now a cliche. It inspired a few gags: Gila Monster whisperer, Whisperer whisperer, Ho whisperer. I drew the Gila Monster whisperer.

This weekend, I discovered that William Shatner's musical work has a very calming effect on the birds. Walter was playing selections from our music collection and transferring some of the songs to his phone. I own a CD of William Shatner's The Transformed Man. Salvador and Edgar would chatter, scream and bother each other while other songs played but as soon as Shatner's rendition of Mr. Tambourine Man played both birds calmed down and by the end of the song they were hunkered down on opposite ends of the shelf barely keeping their eyes open. Walter played other songs and the birds would start up again but they calmed down upon hearing Shatner's Lucy in the Sky. This experiment continued for another hour. Most songs would get them excited but the voice of the Shatner (that needed to be bold) calmed them down. Leonard Nimoy had a similar effect but not as pronounced as the Shatner.

I will try the experiment some more with other Shatner renditions from YouTube. He did a pretty cool rendition of Common People with Joe Jackson on the Conan O'Brien Show. I have an animated Star Trek mash-up featuring that song among my favorites on my YouTube channel. If the birds start squawking during Joe Jackson's singing part then it is safe to say that my birds have really interesting musical tastes.

I am glad that they have not added the Enzyte commercial to their whistling repertoire. I'm sure a quick search of YouTube will turn up video of a pet bird that has added that to their repertoire.