Do parrots just imitate what they hear around them or can they form their own sentences based off what they hear and think?
In: Biology
*For the most part* they have no “understanding” of the words they speak, at least as far as you and I would conceptualize it. It’s sound, not words.
However, there’s been some research done that suggests some parrots, especially macaws, are more intelligent than we think. While they do not understand words, they can recognize emotional states and can learn to associate certain phrases uttered when in an emotional state, and use those expressions to convey a sense of emotion. Meaning if it hears you “make a sound” when it perceives you as sad or depressed, then this is the sound of depression, and will vocalize that sound when in that emotional state.
It’s mimicry. But it might not be entirely random mimicry.
Ours definitely knows context for certain words/phrases, and uses them. I’m sure she doesn’t understand the *exact* words, and I wouldn’t call any of it a conversation, but it’s a little more than just imitation.
I think the hallmark of true understanding would be to ask a question, unsolicited, and meaningful.
You cannot have a conversation with them in the sense that they give an independent answer. But you can have a basic conversation with them repeating things they’ve heard in similar situations.
Example: when my in-laws open the cupboard their macaw’s dry food is in, and ask who’s hungry, he’ll respond with ‘Peebs hungry’. But it’s exactly the same as when I go to the cupboard my cat’s dry food is in, and she mews at me.
They can remember lots of phrases though, so it can seem like a conversation
They’re mostly imitating when they hear. Think of them as toddlers learning to speak. If you show a toddler a picture of a cow, they might recognize it and say “cow”, but if you ask them “Where does milk come from”, they wouldn’t know that.
Of course if you follow up your question by holding a picture of a cow up, then toddlers will learn milk question = cow answer. But it’s not so much understanding that milk comes from cows, but more so you asked them this question and you rewarded them for that answer.
So yeah, parrots can also learn the same thing. Let’s say you tell your wife “I love you” and she makes kissy noises in responses to that. A parrot can understand that a response to “I love you” is kissy noises, but they wouldn’t understand the meaning behind why you’re even making kissy noises in the first place. Or heck they might even go around saying “I love you *kissy noises*” on their own, because they learn that those two tend to go together.
I doubt that parrots can understand words like we can.
One of the biggest differences between a human and a shaved ape is that our brains have two special regions dedicated to understanding and creating speech.
No other animal has this – not even parrots. So while they can have some rudimentary understanding of human language their brains are just not built for human speak.
TL;DR their brains do not have the necessary parts to understand human speech. So no.
Parrots don’t use language.
They can be trained to use words and sentences, and respond to them.
A dog with the correct anatomy would also be able to learn how to respond to a person. As we can already train dogs to respond to verbal commands.
But no animal we know of is able to use language in ways that we commonly define language in.
This was tested in law in a Spanish court a while back.
Someone asked a friend to look after their parrot while they were away. When they returned, the parrot was dead – apparently it hadn’t been fed – not even once. They took the friend to court to get compensation. They sued for a very large amount claiming that the parrot was especially valuable since it could “talk”.
In the end the judge ruled in their favour but only awarded them the ordinary price of a new parrot. He ruled that the parrot could not “talk” but only make natural noises that imitated the sound of the human voice and that this was a common feature of all parrots.
In the course of their protests at this, the judge said something that I find quite amusing:
“No. Your parrot could not talk. Only mimic. If it could actually talk, it would have reminded the defendant to feed it.”
When I was a kid a parrot took me hostage, it demanded my parents to give it a cookie:
‘cookie, cookie, give me a cookie’
When it became apparent that they wouldn’t give it a cookie it did bite my ear.
Conclusion: It doesn’t matters if parrots can conversate, because you mustn’t negotiate with terrorists.
[Find out lots about amazing Parrots here with Maya at Alveus.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8cm420GbC0)
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