Of Prodigal Birds and Stupid Humans

There's this 'exhibit' in the Jurong Bird Park. I'm convinced that it's some cruel prank by the park.

Called the Talking Birds Section, it consists of a couple of lonely-looking parakeets and other multicoloured cousins, each solitary in their cages. The shack they are housed in, relative to the grand, spick-and-span enclosures in the park is, well, a dilapidated old shack. In front of each cage stands a sign. The names of the birds and the words they apparantly can speak, obscured by a layer of grime, are written on these signs.

Now if I were an ageing bird with creaky limbs and a bad case of ED, living in maddening solitude, I wouldn't be in the mood to talk to anyone other than my own kind. That statement must be pretty accurate because the birds didn't talk at all either. I also doubt they understand the words they were taught to say, but that is redundant because of the first point.

Obviously other people don't understand that, so what they do is call the names of the birds in retarded, croaky, voices in an attempt to get them to talk. It doesn't work. These humans would keep at it for many minutes until they lumber away, cursing the 'stupid birds'. What they don't realise is how idiotic they look while trying to talk to the birds. One has to experience it for himself.

There's a CCTV camera in the vicinity. Imagine the laughs generated for the staff.