parrots are excellent mimics of human speech because they learn their vocalizations. How big is the vocabulary of a parrot? Men talk more than women. Does a parrot's vocabulary grow as it gets older? A survey of vocal mimicry in companion parrots adds to what we know about animal vocal learning.
The paper shows that parrots use words in appropriate contexts and highlights the value of crowdsourced data.
The data was collected for a community science project. Humans who live with companion parrots reported on the number of human words and phrases used by their parrots, as well as human associated sounds. It was possible to collect standardized data on vocal learning by nearly 900 parrots from 73 species, a sample that would not have been possible on wild parrots.
The University of Northern Colorado and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown collaborated on a project.
The co-author of the book said that Polly's species might have a strong impact on what she says. Some species are better mimic than others. African grey parrots are known to be the best at learning human sounds. Most species learned more phrases than sounds, but a few learned more human sounds than phrases.
Sex and age are not predictors of vocal mimicry. After they reached maturity, age-based analyses showed that the size of their repertoires stopped growing. Five-year-old birds have larger repertoires than 50 year old birds.
Sex-based analyses showed that males and females were 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- Budgerigars, Pacific Parrotlets, and Yellow-headed Amazons are some of the exceptions.
The researchers documented a reporting bias where birds of uncertain sex were more often marked as male. Humans who live with parrots of uncertain sex assume those birds are males.
According to a human survey, a high proportion of companion parrots spontaneously use human mimicry in appropriate contexts, with most birds doing so frequently. According to the researchers, parrots learn to say what they want to say.
The research shows how much parrots still have to teach. About 30% of parrot species in the wild are declining to the point of being threatened. We risk losing the chance to understand the evolution of complex communication if we don't conserve remaining populations.
As vocal learners, parrots are important research subjects for understanding the biology and evolution of acoustic communication. Both companion and wild parrots use vocal mimicry. This research can lead to new avenues of research and increased appreciation for parrots.
There is a survey of vocal mimicry in parrots.
Anyone who lives with a parrot is invited to join the community science team and contribute to this ongoing research by filling out the survey at this link
Alex, a Grey Parrot and Sparkie Williams, a Budgerigar are two parrots that are well known.
Journal information: Scientific Reports
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