Of all creatures on Earth, humans and birds stand out as the only ones capable of producing human language. Among the avian world’s vocal mimics—a group that includes mynah birds, crows, and ravens—parrots reign supreme. They aren’t just mimicking sounds; parrots have been known to deliver TED talks, converse in multiple languages, and even front heavy metal bands. This begs the question: Why Do Parrots Talk, especially when our closest primate relatives cannot?
Parrots are vocal learners, a fascinating category of animals who acquire sounds through listening and imitation. While a few other bird species share this ability to some extent, parrots are the undisputed masters of mimicry. But what exactly makes parrots so exceptional at talking?
Neuroscientist Erich Jarvis from Duke University, a leading expert in vocal learning, shed light on this question in a groundbreaking study published in PLoS One. His research reveals that all vocal learning birds possess a specialized brain region called the ‘song system.’ However, parrots possess a unique, two-layered song system. They have an inner ‘core,’ which is common to all avian vocal learners, and an outer ‘shell,’ a structure found exclusively in parrots. Jarvis proposes that this recently discovered ‘shell’ is the key to parrots’ extraordinary mimicry skills, although the precise mechanisms are still under investigation.
But the question remains: why do parrots choose to imitate human speech? The answer, surprisingly, lies in peer pressure. Parrots have a natural inclination to integrate and belong, whether it’s within a flock of their own kind or a human family.
In their natural habitats, parrots utilize their vocal abilities to exchange vital information and strengthen social bonds within their flock, explains Irene Pepperberg, a research associate and lecturer at Harvard, renowned for her decades of work studying the cognitive abilities of African Grey Parrots, most notably Alex. “A solitary parrot in the wild is incredibly vulnerable; it’s nearly impossible for a lone bird to simultaneously forage for food and watch out for predators,” Pepperberg notes. Living in a flock allows parrots to share responsibilities and enhance their collective survival.
Parrots exhibit remarkable adaptability in their vocalizations, even developing and learning regional dialects. Tim Wright, a parrot vocalization researcher at New Mexico State University, discovered that Yellow-naped Amazon Parrots in Costa Rica have distinct regional dialects. When parrots move to new regions, they often acquire the local dialect, demonstrating their vocal learning flexibility.
Introduce a parrot into a human household, and they instinctively attempt to integrate, treating their human companions as their new flock, Pepperberg states.
Pet parrots find themselves in an environment perfectly conducive to language acquisition. They have ample time, the social drive to connect, and the mental capacity to learn. Wild parrots, conversely, typically lack the consistent close interaction with human speech necessary to learn it. While there are anecdotal reports of wild parrots repeating human phrases, likely learned from escaped pets, this is not a common occurrence. “In the wild, parrots prioritize learning from other parrots,” Wright explains. It’s only in a domestic setting, where humans become their primary social group, that parrots begin to focus their attention on mimicking us.
This leads to a deeper question: do these gifted birds truly understand the meaning behind the words they speak?
According to Wright, parrots likely associate words with contexts but don’t grasp complex meanings in the same way humans do. “However, they are incredibly sensitive to the context in which we use words, which can sometimes mislead people about the depth of their understanding.” For example, when a parrot greets its owner with “Hello; how are you?” upon their arrival, it isn’t necessarily expressing concern for their well-being. Instead, it’s mimicking a phrase it frequently hears in that context. The parrot’s understanding of “how are you” is more likely associated with “Oh look, someone has entered the room.” Wright also points out that parrots are drawn to sounds and phrases linked to excitement or commotion, which might explain their well-documented ability to learn and use profanity.
However, with structured training, parrots can develop a more meaningful understanding of language, Pepperberg argues. She began rigorously training Alex, her African Grey Parrot, shortly after completing her PhD in 1977. Alex participated in training sessions involving two researchers who identified and exchanged objects he found desirable. One researcher acted as a model, exchanging objects with the other while Alex observed. The researchers intentionally made errors to teach Alex that only the correct label, not just any sound, was associated with object transfer. Only when Alex showed intense interest in the objects was he included in the interaction. If Alex correctly identified an object, he was rewarded with the opportunity to play with it.
“Parrots that talk can understand what they are saying if they receive appropriate training,” Pepperberg concludes. A parrot trained to identify its favorite foods, for instance, genuinely knows what it’s asking for when it names them. Waldo, a 21-year-old African Grey Parrot and a 12-year member of the band Hatebeak, provides a humorous example. As drummer Blake Harrison recounted to Vice, “We got him dehydrated banana chips, and he pieced it together and called them ‘banana crackers’ on his own. It’s a little creepy.”
By the end of his life, Alex had built an impressive vocabulary, identifying 50 objects, seven colors, six shapes, and quantities up to eight. He could accurately report the number of purple popsicle sticks (“How many purple wood?”) on a tray of mixed items. He also grasped concepts like “same” and “different,” and “bigger” and “smaller.” Alex’s true distinction wasn’t just his vocabulary, which was average for a parrot at around 100 words, but his capacity to learn and generalize concepts. For instance, after tasting cake on his birthday, Alex dubbed it “yummy bread.” He even created his own word for ‘apple’ – ‘bannery,’ “because it probably tasted a bit like a banana and looked like a big cherry,” Pepperberg speculates.
While Alex’s cognitive abilities are remarkable, it’s important to remember that many animals, even non-vocal learners, use sounds for communication, especially concerning fundamental needs like food. Perhaps we find parrots particularly captivating because their ability to mimic human speech creates a unique bridge between our worlds, making their communication seem more relatable and endearing. Ultimately, while the reasons behind why parrots talk are complex and multifaceted, encompassing brain structure, social behavior, and learning capacity, their vocalizations offer us a fascinating glimpse into the intricate cognitive lives of these remarkable birds.
