Mario,

No I still use the Whistle as a call signal. The click and the food are reinforcers. The food is the positive reinforcer and the click is a bridge or conditional reinforcer.

In the beginning, I am using them together so the bird associates his positive reinforcement with the click, or CR. eventually the CR is used without the positive reinforcer every time. It is like a bridge signal telling the bird you like what he is doing and a reward is coming. As I understand it, this will allow for shaping more complex behaviors down the road. Instead of giving a positive reinforcement (food) for each step of 1) lean forward for hood, 2) step calmly on scale, 3) step back on glove, 4) lean forward for hood removal, you give the conditional reinforcer for each step and then the positive reinforcer at the end.

It is supposed to allow you to train complex behaviors faster by reinforcing each step until it is down, then moving on to the next step.

Once the bird associates positive reinforcement with the click, you have just gained a powerful tool to communicate with your bird.

Disclaimer, I am a novice at this and the above is just my simplified understanding of OC. I am probably butchering the semantics, but hopefully the concept is right.