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Those mandatory morning work meetings can be real spirit breakers. However, this meeting shared by furbabiesplus looks more like these parrots are spilling the tea around the company water cooler. Parrots have a well known and often hilarious ability to mimic speech. Yet, because of these incredible skills, we typically focus on how parrots learn and use our language, not on how they communicate in their own. These chatty birds are not even the same parrot species, but they seem to understand one another just fine. However, are they really communicating? If so, what are they saying?
Bird Brains
It should come as no surprise that there are many studies on parrot intelligence. Researchers have reported their abilities to use tools, count objects, recognize colors, and repeat hundreds of words. However, it’s not all training and mimicry. A famous African grey parrot named Alex was documented to have a vocabulary of over 100 words that he used to communicate with researchers. Contrary to popular belief, some scientists claim parrots know what they’re saying when taught properly.
Avian researchers believe one reason parrots have such impressive vocal learning skills is brain power. Some studies have suggested brain size is indicative of intellect. Large brains are believed to produce more neurons, resulting in more power to process information. However, the research on bird brains indicates that size doesn’t always matter. Birds’ brains are roughly the size of walnuts, but they have twice the neurons per unit of brain volume than primates. Researchers have concluded that the quantity of neurons, as well as their organization, contributes to birds’ cognition.
Parrot Communication
Parrots, along with songbirds and hummingbirds, are the only birds that can learn to make new sounds. Scientists note that the vocalizations of these birds have some elements in common with human language, such as intentionally imparting information and utilizing syntax, semantics, and phonology. A recent study has shown that budgerigars, a small species of parrot commonly called parakeets, have vocal production centers in their brains that closely resemble the language-producing structures in ours.
The birds in the video are different parrot species, but scientists have found that birds of different species can communicate. Birds will learn the calls of other birds if there is some benefit in doing so. These birds live together, so there is certainly an advantage in having a shared language through which they can communicate. Yet even within a species, vocalizations can vary significantly. Researchers have discovered that captive-born and wild-born birds of the same parrot species have difficulty understanding their counterparts’ different dialects. So, do the birds above really understand one another?
Birds of a Feather
Parrots are generally social and adaptable birds and they prefer to have companions. Vocalizations are an important part of parrot socialization. How a parrot vocalizes and its ability to learn from other parrots is crucial to fitting in with the flock. The description suggests these birds meet frequently, so they may view themselves as part of the same flock. So in order to fit in, they learn to mimic the different sounds of their companions.
Even if they’re still learning a shared language, birds also communicate using body language. The three parrots in the background of the video bob their heads and chirp while glancing around at the others. The two in the foreground quietly focus on the other parrots’ chirping. However, they are calm and do not lean away, indicating a desire to forgo contact. None of the birds’ feathers are raised and their tails remain still. They chirp in response to one another, and the sounds aren’t sharp and shrill as in alarm.
In this context, head bobbing and chirping while looking at the others is likely a sign of excitement and happiness because they are interacting with other birds. The quiet parrots watching in the foreground may be trying to learn from the others. It could also be a sign of boredom. Those two may just be thinking this is another meeting that should have been an email. As humans who don’t speak any dialect of parrot, we may not understand exactly what they’re trying to say. However, they’re not talking to us.
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