"Jag älskar dig": American budgie learns Swedish to comfort a friend

Photo © The Local - Sweden's news in English

This budgie is called Disco and lives in New York. He has been learning Swedish to comfort a feathered friend from Malmö (Southern Sweden) who was feeling a bit 'under the weather'.

“Jag älskar dig, jag älskar dig,” chirps Disco, sending thousands of love greetings for his friend over the ocean. Meanwhile, his sweet little bird voice has won the hearts of thousands of bird lovers around the world.

Owner Judy Bolton quickly realised that the world went cuckoo over her pet bird. She set up a Facebook page (Disco the Parakeet) and a Twitter account for Disco (@DiscoParakeet).

Photo © Disco the Parakeet in Facebook

But Disco is not just an ordinary talking budgie. When he learned that one of his Facebook friends, a blue budgie called Nalle from Malmö, fell ill, the New York budgie learned how to comfort the budgie in a language Nalle could understand.

The result was captured in a short and sweet video:



Bolton explained that Disco is such a quick learner because he can mimic human voices very easily, no matter the language.

“Well, what’s legal?! Seriously, language-wise, the sky’s the limit. Budgies can learn a LOT of languages, and he’s very young, not even two years old," she said.
“He seems to know when we’re teaching him something new, and he gets excited about it. He recently learned the Rolling Stones' hits 'I can’t get no satisfaction' and 'Shattered' and they seem to be his favourites right now."

At first, Bolton was surprised by her pet’s internet notoriety, yet soon found that thousands of people worldwide had made fan pages for their own quirky pets, including Swedish Nalle, who even has his own blog.





Bolton needed only a little convincing at first, she admitted, but has now embraced the opportunity to add a little chirp to the online world.

“It’s really pretty nutty, but people love animals, and I am told all the time how much Disco makes people smile, including people dealing with major health issues. That makes us happy here!” she said.

Photo © Disco the Parakeet in Facebook

There's not only a strong bond between Disco and Nalle. Bolton pointed out that the underlying story of the budgies is one of international human friendship.

“Disco was videoed saying ‘Jag älskar dig’ because this human was worried about Nalle’s human while she waited for news about her little pet bird," she told The Local. “We need more of that in the world."

For those curious about Nalle’s response to the warm wishes, the recuperated birdie said "Puss och kram mitt lilla hjärta" ('Kisses and hugs my little darling').

For those hwo haven't noticed yet... Disco is my new budgie of the month :-)

Story © The Local - Sweden's News in English