Silver loves to listen to cockatiels on Youtube, which I play for him on my computer monitor. He definitely knows that the sound is coming from the monitor, and he sits on top of it, and looks down toward the screen. But, when I hold him so he can see the bird that is singing, he doesn't seem to react to it.

Are your tiels like that too? Why do you think that is? They are very visual creatures, but the lack of the third dimension seems to render it meaningless, I wonder how he would react to 3D? I'd love to get hold of a 3D cockatiel, and see what he thought of it.

My guys definitely react to cockatiel sounds coming from the screen, but don't really pay any attention to what they see on the screen (and that goes for TV shows too). I don't think they can conceptualize well enough to translate a flat picture to three-dimensional physical reality.

Isn't it funny, though, that they do react to the bird in a mirror, which is two dimensions.

I have been making it a ritual, late in the afternoon, to play youtube videos of cockatiels singing . It's a big hit, especially with Silver. I have the idea that he probably has his favorite performers, like we have our favorite bands.

Maybe it's because the bird in the mirror is so close to them? It's hard to know how birds think lol.

try this one and tell us if he likes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT42qImw7Ow
and this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EiriZVj_kY

Silver definitely likes them both. I noticed the tiel in the first video banging his beak against the mirror. Do other tiels do that? I have not seen Silver do that (although, he only gets a mirror as a special treat, once in a while.)

A lot of males like to beak bang as part of their song and dance routine, but not all of them do it.