Wild Parrots Learning To Talk From Escaped Pet Birds

bazzalunatic writes "Be careful what you teach a parrot. Some chatty pet parrots that have escaped back into the wild have taught wild parrots to talk. Seems the phenomenon could be integrated into the flock through generations. From the article: 'The evolution of language could well be passed on through the generations, says Ken. "If the parents are talkers and they produce chicks, their chicks are likely to pick up some of that," he says. This phenomenon is not unique; some lyrebirds in southern Australia still reproduce the sounds of axes and old shutter-box cameras their ancestors once learnt.'" While this doesn't reach the amazing level of Washoe the chimpanzee teaching sign language, it is still interesting and reminiscent of something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Re:Do they really understand what they are saying?

[Froeschle]

They actually know the point of what they are saying. My birds know our names, say thinks like "thank you" when they want something, "night night" when they want their cage covered, "hello" when the phone rings, "water" when they want to be sprayed, and say "don't bark" when my dog barks.

Re:Words, Not Communication

[Hatta]

You must be unfamiliar with Alex the Grey Parrot. He could combine abstract concepts like "blue" and "truck" to correctly identify a toy he had never seen before as a "blue truck".