How and why do parrots talk? Best talking parrot and teaching your parrot to talk

Do parrots understand what you’re saying?

I believe they do. For parrots, words may have associations rather than complex meanings.

So when your parrot says, ‘How are you?’ It’s not your health he’s asking about. He associates someone coming into the room with that phrase. In the same way, he’ll say, ‘Goodbye,’ when he sees you put on a coat.

Steve Hartman from the Parrot University states that:

“Understanding human language and being able to reproduce it are two entirely different skills. Parrots – just like children that are too young to speak – can and do understand a lot of what you are saying.”

I have found that entirely true when training my young macaw. He doesn’t speak more than a few words but understands much more. If I say ‘Bed time Benni’ too early he’ll immediately fly off his perch and land out of reach on the picture rail.

If I say ‘bed time, Benni’ at what he considers a suitable time around 9 pm, he’ll reply ‘step up,’ come back to his cage on my arm.

Talk as much and as often as you can to your parrot and he will be more likely to understand and more likely to use words appropriately.

Parrots communicate through body language

Parrots are capable of displaying extreme emotion. But unlike humans, parrots communicate their emotions mostly through body language.

If you want to communicate well with a parrot learn what its body language signals mean.

Humans also use body language to communicate. Since our vocabulary exceeds thousands of words – body language is often ignored.

For other mammals and birds, body language accounts for up to ninety percent of all communication.

Parrots can speak in context

Parrots will speak in whatever language is relevant to them, whether that be English, Japanese, Arabic or any other language they’ve heard spoken. Do parrots know what they are saying? Most parrot owners swear that they do.

During an hour-long Skype conversation I was having with an American Grey owner, Paula Feldman, neither her Grey, Rachel, nor my Grey, Artha, uttered a word. However, I believe that Rachel’s vocabulary of over 300 words, as transcribed by Paula, is quite accurate. Paula said, ‘As an English professor, I love being able to have a conversation with my companion animal.’

Like many Greys, if Rachel does not get what she wants, she insists. Her favourite food, corn-on-the-cob, is prepared in the microwave. When it pings, she often calls out ‘corn’. If corn isn’t forthcoming, she will sing in an operatic voice, ‘coo-r-r-r-r-n’.

Paula returned one day from the office and, as usual, greeted her Grey. ‘Hi, how are you, Rachel?’ The bird replied, ‘Incarcerated’. Paula told me, ‘I never taught her that word, but she’d have heard me use it occasionally. There are simply too many instances in which Rachel uses language appropriately for it to be mere coincidence’.

Sole birds are often reported to have vast vocabularies. Seventeen -year-old N’kisi, an African Grey, who lives in New York with her carer Morgana, has a vocabulary of over 1000 words. On one occasion, N’Kisi asked Jane Goodall, who was visiting the apartment, ‘Got a chimp?’ Morgana said that before Goodall’s arrival, she had explained to N’kisi about her work with chimpanzees.

Parrots can transpose!

What can be amusing is the way parrots transpose. I taught Artha Grey nursery rhymes. But she altered the words of Georgie Porgy, pudding and pie to ‘Artha- partha pudding and pie, kissed boys made cry.’

Other remarks I cannot think she understood but used them to elicit laughter and applause. To the question, how does the doggie go? She’d reply, ‘woof, woof, meow.’

Your parrot may not talk – but he may still understand you!

My own pair of wild caught Orange Winged Amazons (both now deceased in their forties and the hen at fifty) were not known for their talking ability.

However, someone had taught Archie in his years as a zoo bird to do the most convincing belly laugh imaginable.

These Amazons had lived for twenty years with a German-speaking couple. Although I never heard them speak a word of German, if any visitor spoke German to them, they’d bob up and down with excited interest.

Love your parrot for herself, not for whether she can talk

Bird owners often remark that one of their main reasons for buying a parrot was the possibility of communicating with the bird in his or her own language. Do remember that talking is only a small part of the joy of these amazing intelligent creatures.

I asked Dr Susan Friedman one of USA leading teachers of the science of behaviour for people, animals and birds whether any of her personal birds talked and she said: “all four of my parrots talk, but not often in English! Since parrots’ talking ability was one of their main attractions for me, it was a good lesson in unconditional acceptance and an opportunity for me to rethink what caring for parrots means. I understand now that meeting the needs of parrots as companion animals is very, very challenging and my focus is on arranging the environment for them to succeed in my care.”

And finally….

Alex The Parrot – Pioneer in Parrot Intelligence

The parrot who expanded our understanding of parrot intelligence was Alex, the African Grey whose name is an acronym for Animal Learning Experiment.

Alex, was the subject of a 30-year study by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg, carried from 1977–2007.

In December 1980, Kathy Davidson, one of the laboratory students, took Alex to the washroom. Alex noticed the mirror for the first time. He cocked his head back and forth a few times to get a fuller look, and said:“What’s that?” “That’s you. You’re a parrot.” Kathy answered. “What colour?” asked the bird. “Grey. You’re a grey parrot, Alex.” And that’s how Alex learned the colour grey.

Alex was a captive-bred bird, purchased from a pet shop at about one year old. Although bought as a laboratory research animal, the relationship between Alex and Dr Pepperberg deepened.

‘He became my colleague.’ Dr Pepperberg said. She has never claimed that Alex used language in a human fashion. But the two-way communication code that developed between the bird and researchers, and later with the other African Greys who joined the lab, worked.

Alex provided incontrovertible proof to everyone but the most diehard sceptics that he could perform various cognitive tasks as well as the great apes, and at the level of a young child.

His astounding abilities were displayed through his use of language. Alex could count up to six, knew colours, shapes and qualities of objects. He could tell you what material an object was made of. Towards the end of his life, he appeared to have an awareness of the concept of zero.