What IS this?

[Ahautenites]

When my Phoebe is happy, I "hear" her in my ears. But it's not a sound. Or, if it IS a sound, it's too high-pitched for me to recognize it as a sound.

I wish I could describe the sensation. It's a little like how you can move your throat and tongue in a way that kind of braces you for when you want to pop your ears or yawn or something. It's not the actual popping of your ears. It's the lack-of-sound sound that happens just before that.

The first time I noticed it was when I gave her her toy xylophone to play with a couple years ago. She was ecstatic about it. She squee'd happily and banged her beak on the buttons that made notes happen on the xylophone. I could hear that squeeing, because it came from her mouth, but even when she wasn't making the normal audible sound, I could still "hear" her happiness in the way I described above.

I haven't mentioned it to anyone else before, and I've actually dismissed it, but whenever she's so happy to see me after I've been gone all day, and I detect that odd sensation, I always find myself telling her, "I know. I hear you."

I wish there were some way I could discover if it's an audible sound I'm hearing or a sound inside my head.

Anyone else have experience with something like this?

[Xentor]

Phoebe is a bird?

I guess what you've developed is a relationship so tuned into each other, that you've learned to pick up the slightest of modes of communication, much like I've learned to understand that my dog needs to go out, even though her only noise for that is the pitter-patter of her nails on the floor, and I've got my eyes closed in the darkened bed room. We pick up on each other's cues, because we want to, or because we have no other choice. And maybe yes, maybe Phoebe is making a high-pitched noise when she's happy, and you've adapted your hearing to match.

[Ahautenites]

Yes, Phoebe is a cinnamon green-cheek conure.

I think she must be making some kind of a noise. She had walked along the couch while I was typing something. I wasn't looking at her, but she discovered a jelly bean (she adores jelly beans), and I heard the non-sound sound and looked up to see what she was doing.

It's got to be a high-pitched sound. I can't hear her when I'm downstairs and she's upstairs. I was actually surprised to hear her from four feet away on the couch.

I do have very good hearing. I can't hear the "mosquito" ringtones anymore since I've gotten older, but I'm still good at hearing things that don't usually bother other people. I can't even have my radio plugged into the wall beside my bed, because the hum of electricity through the plug annoys the hell out of me. (I can't hear it when the radio is on. Probably because the sound of the music drowns it out.)

[Ahautenites]

A-ha!!! This article (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/nonpwdpubs/introducing_birds/bird_songs/)agrees with you, Xen.

"Melodious as bird songs seem to our ears, we can hear only a portion of the complex sounds some birds produce. Their songs may range from less than an octave to almost two full octaves, but the frequency or pitch of the notes many birds sing is too high for us to hear. Since bird notes seldom remain on the same pitch from moment to moment, slurring up, down, and in both directions, our ears often cannot separate even the notes that are in our hearing range. Up and down variations in the wood thrush's song may be as rapid as two hundred per second. With the help of electronic equipment, researchers now are able to record the wavelengths of these high-frequency, high-speed bird sounds and are learning more about them."

Good. Thought I was going a bit nuts.

[Nola]

you might like to get hold of a bat detector.

I use mine to listen in on my rats, and they have a surprisingly complex high frequency vocal communication. some of the sounds they make have very distinct meanings. there's a really cute little Chip....Chip.... noise that they make when they're looking at something they're not sure about, and that will usually bring the other rat over to have a look at the thing that's causing concern. there's a really urgent squeak when they decide something is dangerous, and both will run to their bed box and hide. best of all is the lovely rippling burbley WHHEEEEEEEE noise they make when you tickle them. they're very ticklish.