We need to improve our understanding of parrot languages. :)
We have had wild Rainbow Lorikeets visiting us for over 20 years. In our recently previous home we were up to 5 generations of birds, then we had to move.
There was one who was obviously out of her usual flock, and at the edge of desperation, who allowed me to hand feed her, and she was the first wild bird who decided to come inside and have food.
For over 10 years she came every day, met a mate after about 2 years, and taught him to come and sit beside me on the couch in the afternoon.
Then, over the next 8 years we had many families join us.
She grew to understand us, even appearing to understand us when we were happy, and when we were sad - that little Lorikeet really appeared to be empathic..
When she flew off to die (just last year) she told us in her own way, to look after her husband. The next day, her hubbie turned up disconsolate.. He didn't want water.. He didn't want food.. He just sat in his spot on the top of a chair and cried..
This went on for a week, with us force-feeding him (well not really, but hand-feeding). Over the next few weeks, his visits became less frequent - but at least he was eating.
Smart parrots like Lorikeets somehow appear to share so many similar 'feelings' as us. We even had one who spoke English and had a great sense of humour who understood context.
Having a bird, I'm sort of amazed how people just don't understand just how complex and deep things can go.
I speak to other folks with birds and am amazed. I met one lady picking her cockatiel up at the vet and she told me it was so convenient that her bird can say yes and no. But she couldn't talk. So I asked how it worked. She said the bird could choose between two different color cards - one was for yes, the other was for no. Then she would answer questions "Do you want to go to bed?" "are you hungry?" I didn't know how the bird was taught, the lady said the previous owner had taught her, but this kind of stuff is common.
Also, more in line with your experience, you might like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Parrots_of_Telegraph_...
And physiology alone seems unlikely to tell us how they “feel” about it.
Perhaps they are so amazed by the technology that they couldn’t care less about the flicker :)
Best cognitive interaction what the best educated birds can perform is to count 2+3 verbally (some African grey parrot).
But, if we’re being pedantic, I should mention that there are languages that do not require ordering for meaning but instead use declensions and conjugations (though ordering may still be used for further expressiveness). Though maybe you include this in your “fixed literal vocabulary”.
Edit: A quick search suggest parrots can indeed use a basic grammar via sentence structuring. One of a few relevant search results: https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/biology/polly-wants-a-con....
What if it's more like using an old telephone or a black-and-white TV? A hindrance, but better than what came before?
If our displays flicker to them, which is a highly probable, it is annoyance by any definition. It may be not annoying to spiders which have a tiny brain and live in a world of mechanical sense, but birds are smart and most of their brain is shaped for visual data.
> A hindrance, but better than what came before?
How can this statement be applied to birds? They neither expect nor desire all these technology and the only reason they are not scared of it is a professionalism of their caretakers.
Well, an annoyance by your definition. Not sure how you managed to declare it universal.
Especially if it is not possible to escape from this oscillation (caretaker want the parrot to interact with the display).
Especially if it is in the animal's favorite kind of sense (mechanical oscillation of a spiderweb is a working way to annoy the owning it spider).
Are you sure? Parrots are highly social creatures. Very possible that they do desire if not the technology, but the connection it gives them.
> the only reason they are not scared of it is a professionalism of their caretakers
Maybe. Maybe not. You have way too much confidence for something we do not know enough about.