Tigu and Bubba — two birds that’ll talk your ear off

By Nicola Ceccato

Mar 30, 2022

Nicely perched: Tigu sits peacefully on Vandana’s hand. Photo by Megan Fisher

Flying across the room, Bubba and Tigu are full of spirit as they dart from pieces of furniture to the top of the heads of their owners, Nilesh and Vandana Bhilave, who live in Shepparton.

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“They’re good talkers, that’s why people have them,” Nilesh said.

“They talk a lot — they say hello, how are you, I love you,” Vandana said, as Bubba pulled at her hair.

“I was saying in our own language ‘betu’, which means baby, so they say hello betu.

“He never goes to anyone because I hand raised him.

“So, he always sits on my head whenever I cook or go to the washroom.”

Bubba and Tigu are native South American birds — Bubba, a yellow-naped Amazon, and Tigu, a blue-fronted Amazon.

Despite looking fully grown, the two birds celebrated their first birthday in November last year.

A birthday that will be one of many, given their incredible lifespan of up to 80.

The Bhilaves bought Tigu when he was only a baby; it was witnessing a bit of a scare with him that led them to welcoming Bubba to the family.

“When he (Tigu) was five months old, we lost him. He was gone for three days and for the three days I was crying and that’s why we got him,” Vandana said, pointing to Bubba.

“Then we went straight away all the way to South Australia to get him and in the middle of driving to South Australia, we got a call from someone who said, ‘we found your bird’.”

Since then, the two birds have become the best of friends and love getting up to mischief.

“When you see them, they look like they are very well behaved, but they are not,” Vandana said.

“That's how they play, they break when they play so they will destroy the toys slowly so we have to buy new ones,” Nilesh said.

“We say Tigu don’t do, no Tigu, and he imitates it and says ‘no Tigu don’t do’.

“They don't know what they’re copying, they’ll copy anything.

“So, you have to be very careful.”

Always needing a lot of care, Tigu and Bubba enjoy the company of their human parents.

“They need a lot of attention,” Nilesh said.

“If you are in another room, they will make a sound.

“If you are sitting in the room, they want to come to us.

“We’ll be sitting here and they won't make any noise.

“But if they don't see us for a long time or we’re sitting in another room, they will come out to us.