Speaking of parrots, it is easy to associate with learning languages. After all, as birds, they imitate human language in a very subtle way. In addition, their feathers are colorful and have a high ornamental value, so they are very popular with people.
We may know that parrots with strong learning ability are basically from abroad, such as gray parrots from Africa, Amazon parrots from North and South America, and macaws in tropical America. There are also some parrots in China, such as large crimson-breasted parrots, small crimson-breasted parrots, red-billed green parrots, etc., but their ability to learn language is relatively weak.
Although there are parrots with strong speaking ability abroad, if we really want to talk about the level of bird raising, it depends on China.
China's bird culture has a long history, and if you go back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. We can infer this from some excavated artifacts, such as some bronzes and some oracle bones, which are commonly found in "bird totems". It can be seen that since then, people have been very popular with birds, and the "bird totem" also shows people's reverence for nature and admiration for birds at that time.
With the progress of human civilization, we are not limited to advocating birds, but also began to conquer and domesticate them. During the Tang and Song dynasties, bird breeding gradually flourished, and the figure of birds gradually integrated into people's life and entertainment. At the same time, it has also become a kind of emotional sustenance for people.
I believe that everyone has read a poem by Bai Juyi
Birds
Whoever lives in the crowd,
General flesh and bones generally skin.
Advise the king not to beat the branch-headed bird,
The Son returns to his mother in the nest.
It can be seen that although we had the desire to conquer nature at that time, we still knew how to abide by the rules of nature and would not blindly hunt. Raising birds at the same time gives birds in nature a chance to reproduce.
During the Tang Dynasty, birds were the pleasures of some high-ranking officials and nobles, so all bird tools were more exquisite and noble. In the Qing Dynasty, bird breeding was no longer the exclusive property of the nobility, and some ordinary people also popularly raised birds, which also promoted the rapid development of bird culture. Therefore, people gradually formed a cultural knowledge of the breeding and domestication of birds and passed it down.
In the Han Dynasty, the bird culture was once again promoted. The so-called good birds use good cages, people are not only satisfied with the birds themselves, but also begin to improve and sublimate the things used by birds. Take bird food cans, for example, there were six materials at the time: metal, porcelain, dentin, bamboo, bone, and wood. At the same time, there are also some bird food cans such as two-piece sets and five-piece sets. The two-piece set generally refers to the food tank and water tank that meet the daily feeding needs, while the five-piece set is: dry cans, wet cans, drinking water tanks, insect tanks and vegetable tanks. Bath water tanks and sand tanks are not included in the five-piece set.
Up to now, people have made some reforms, whether it is a cage for birds or a bird food tank, such as some round cages, square cages, and iron cages in various house shapes. New materials have also been added to the canister, such as plastic, stainless steel and glass.
We Chinese birds are all exquisite and learned, what birds with what cage, what cage with what food can and what jump pole are all doorways. When the birds are flourishing, what cage you carry, the clear-eyed people will know what birds you have when they look at it. For example, if you mention a five-piece birdcage with a single jumper, you must be raising indigo. If you're mentioning a double jumper five-piece set, you're probably raising a shellfish. If you mention that the official seal cage is equipped with a three-piece set, it is basically to prepare to raise embroidery eyes. At this level of culture, if China ranks first, I believe that foreign countries with talking parrots will not dare to fight with us.
Today, when the traditional bird culture is disappearing, few people will deliberately match the suitable bird tools for the birds. Perhaps some elderly people are still retaining the traditional way of raising birds, and most people have basically replaced the traditional five-piece set with a three-piece set. There are also some automatic feeders that are gradually being accepted.
Let's take a look at those who raise parrots abroad, basically they are coarsely raised, more casual, and they are still worse than China's bird breeding level, and they always lack a cultural heritage.