Why can parrots talk? - Grace Smith-Vidaurre and Tim Wright
In 2010, a parrot that spoke
with the same British accent as his owner
went missing.
They were reunited four years later,
but the intervening time left
a conspicuous mark:
the parrot had lost its British accent
and was instead chattering
away in Spanish.
Parrots and several other birds are
the only other animals
that produce human speech.
And some parrots do it almost
uncannily well.
How is this possible?
Most wild parrots are highly social.
They use vocalizations for mating
and territorial displays
and to coordinate group movements.
Some species have flocks
that continuously split and fuse,
meaning individual parrots must be able
to communicate with many others.
Parrots use contact calls to interact
and stay in touch when others
are out of sight.
But how exactly they use these calls
depends on the species
and the size of their flocks.
Monk parakeets, for example,
live in large colonies
and have individualized contact calls
that help them stand out.
Yellow-naped Amazon parrots,
on the other hand,
forage in smaller groups that learn
and share highly similar contact calls.
This need for sophisticated mimicry may
partially explain why yellow-naped Amazons
and some other parrots can
closely imitate a wide range of sounds—
including the human voice.
So, how does a parrot actually declare
that “Polly wants a cracker”?
A person would string these sounds
together using their larynx,
the organ at the top of their windpipe.
It consists of rings of muscles
and a vibrating membrane
that controls airflow.
They’d finely shape the vocalization
into enunciated words
using their tongue and lips.
For a parrot, however, the sound
would originate in its syrinx,
located at the base of its windpipe.
Many other birds have two vibrating
membranes within this organ.
But parrots, like us, have just one.
As sounds leave the airway, parrots shape
them using their tongues and beaks.
They can do this because they have
especially flexible, powerful tongues
that help them manipulate seeds and nuts.
And while parrots’ beaks are rigid,
they have very flexible jaw joints,
giving them a lot of control
over how wide and how quickly
they open their beaks.
Like other animals
with learned vocalizations,
parrot brains contain interconnected
regions that allow them
to hear, remember, modify,
and produce complex sounds.
But while songbirds have just one
song system in their brains,
almost all parrots seem to have
an additional circuit.
Scientists think that this might give
them extra flexibility
when it comes to learning the calls
of their own species— and ours.
With this specialized anatomy,
parrots can bark, scream, curse,
and recite factoids.
One intrepid lost parrot managed
to get back home
after repeating his full name
and address to helpful strangers.
But these impressive abilities
raise another question:
do parrots actually understand
what they’re saying?
When most captive parrots talk,
they’re likely attempting to form social
bonds in the absence of their own species.
Many probably have associations
with words
and may be drawn to ones
that elicit certain responses—
hence their capacity for profanity.
But, especially after training,
parrots have been observed to say things
in the appropriate contexts
and assign meaning to words—
saying “goodnight” at the end of the day,
asking for certain treats,
or counting and picking objects.
One extensively trained
African grey parrot named Alex
became the first non-human animal
to pose an existential question
when he asked what color he was.
Whether they’re belting Beyoncé,
head-banging to classic rock,
or rattling off cuss words at zoo-goers,
parrots are constantly astounding us—
as they have been for millennia.
But our fascination with parrots has
also made them vulnerable.
Sought by poachers and pet traders,
while losing their habitats
to deforestation,
wild populations have decreased
dramatically.
To truly understand parrots, we need
to preserve and study them in the wild.
