It’s no secret that parrots are among the animal kingdom’s most chatty animals.
They can mimic other birds’ calls, and some species
can even copy human speech well enough to form full-on sentences.
But when Polly asks for a cracker, does she really know what she’s saying?
Like, humans can parse the verbs from nouns in a given sentence,
and know exactly what the word “cracker” means, and all that.
But how much of that is true for birds?
Turns out, science can help us figure out what Polly really wants.
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We humans want to believe parrots can talk, since like,
it would just be really cool if there was some animal other than us that could.
But while parrots do use imitation to communicate,
it's a little different from actual speech.
The birds use copied verbalizations with humans and with each other.
Copying the call of another bird seems to be a great way to get its attention.
Like, if you were at home alone and you heard a voice that sounded
exactly like you, that’s the kind of thing you would, like, definitely notice.
Also, when you live in a flock with up to 100 other birds and they’re
all wearing the same colors, knowing how to imitate the bird you
most want to talk to can be a handy way to find them in the crowd.
You could even call it a kind of naming.
Each parrot’s “name” becomes the sound it makes,
so imitating the sound is like calling the parrot’s name.
That’s kind of remarkable, because naming is
something we usually associate with humans.
But parrots are like us in other ways, too.
Like humans, they have really complex brains,
with a lot more neurons than most animals their size.
In fact, scientists say a parrot brain has
about as many neurons as some primates do.
And like most humans, parrots are also very social animals.
They’ll play with each other well into adulthood,
and get pretty chatty about starting a party.
Parrots have a “play call,” which is a lot like contagious laughter in humans.
You know, kinda like when you hear other people
laughing and you join in too, even if you don’t fully get the joke.
And any parrots hearing the call will often just initiate play
with other birds that happen to be nearby, even if they weren’t playing yet either.
It isn't really an invitation to play, it's just an announcement:
"we're playing and you should play too."
And, like people, parrots don’t do well when they’re isolated.
But, if they’re lonely and have the right setup,
they can even figure out how to video call with other parrots.
This need for social interaction could
also be why they form a strong bond with their human caretakers.
In the wild, they show preference towards communicating
with their mates and their own close relatives, like siblings.
When they’re young, they answer to the calls of their siblings
more so than the calls of random other birds.
But as they get older, they spend more time calling out to their mates,
and even start sounding more like them, too.
Essentially, parrots that spend a lot of time together quickly
end up taking on similar vocabulary to one another…
kinda like you and your best friend might!
So we do know some things about how parrots communicate in the wild,
but that doesn’t necessarily tell us how much of human speech they understand.
They’re great at mimicking us saying words,
but it’s been less clear whether or not
they understand just what those words mean.
And as it turns out, most of them only sorta do.
For most species, copying human words is just rote imitation.
When they have time and opportunity, they can learn to ascribe meanings
to the words they use, although it's often more of an
association with context than a true understanding of the words.
For example, Polly might say she wants a cracker because
she knows you will give her food when she repeats that phrase.
But she probably doesn’t understand the meaning of “want”
or that a “cracker” is a specific thing.
This is pretty similar to how you train any other animal:
by rewarding the behavior you want to see.
When researchers have worked with grey parrots, though
(and I mean like 8 hours a day five days a week kinda work)
they’ve found that their birds can learn to understand words
and even develop the ability to link words together to make phrases.
But this is hardly something they’d do in the wild.
Being with humans just gives an unusually smart animal
an opportunity to absorb information in a completely unnatural way.
Regardless of whether Polly understands that a cracker is a tasty treat
or just wants to get your attention, it’s a privilege to
know that parrots are so keen to sound like us.
Because it’s not just about copying us, it’s also about bonding with us.
So in a parrot’s case, imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.
Thanks so much for watching, and a huge special thanks
to our pandemonium of patrons.
Pandemonium is the group word for parrots.
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