7-year-old swearing macaw Barney is apparently teaching other birds how to swear.

According to news reports Barney never stopped swearing despite being taken to a language specialist.
His most shocking outburst was when he told a mayoress, a vicar and two police officers to ‘f*** off’ and called them ‘w******’ when they visited Warwickshire Animal Sanctuary in Nuneaton, central England.

“He’s told a lady mayoress to f..(expletive) off and he told a lady vicar: ‘And you can f… off as well’,” sanctuary worker Stacey Clark said.

“Two policemen came to have a look at the centre. He told them: ‘And you can f… off you two wankers’.”

News archives say that Berney was previously owned by a lorry driver who emigrated to Spain. Berney has been banished from public areas in a British animal sanctuary for swearing.

“He does say ‘Hello, big boy’ and ‘Thank you’ when you give him a biscuit,” she added in her news interview, “But it’s mainly naughty words and always to the wrong people. We’re trying to teach him not to swear. Macaws are very intelligent birds.”

Apparently that didn’t work out so well. Berney has now been spreading his obscene vocabulary to the other parrots, at the centre.
Owner Geoff Grewcock said: “It sounds like a builders’ yard sometimes when we come in here, what with all the abuse flying about.”

“They just sit there swearing at each other now, all kind of foul language - it’s unbelievable.” adding that they even have favorite swearing words: “The terrible trio’s favorite rude words are ‘f*** off’, ‘b*****ks’ and ‘t**s’.”

He added: “These birds can live until they are 70 so there are potentially another 60 years of this to contend with.”

Parrot expert Rob Harvey said birds usually talk to get the attention of their owners, and added that: “This case is unusual because parrots are copying another parrot.”