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A Little Birdie Told Me

© Joy Butler

When I was young, my aunt had a pair of green parakeets named Charlie and Charlene. Now Charlie was a talker but Charlene never spoke, so Charlie would, quite self-righteously, inform visitors, "Charlene can't talk!"

Many of us, at one time or another, have had a companion bird who talked, and we've all laughed at the parrot squawking, "Polly wants a cracker!" We enjoyed the comedy of those mimicries and probably never thought once that the birds could have been aware of what they were saying. But, what if they were? What if these birds had not only been capable of mimicry but possessed the ability of conversation as well? What would they have said? What bits of wisdom might have come from those little beaks?

For several decades Dr. Irene Pepperberg has researched the intelligence of parrots with an African gray named Alex, along with several others. These birds have demonstrated a remarkable ability to learn phrases and to use them appropriately to ask for things they want and to answer questions. They have identified subjects, colors, shapes, and quantities, and their cognitive abilities have been compared to primates, marine mammals, and 4-5 year old children. They also demonstrate the ability to understand abstract concepts, such as same and different, and possess the emotional capacity of a 2-3 year old child. A Philadelphia parrot behavior consultant once said that people have reported coming home feeling down and being asked by their parrot, "Is something wrong?"

Scientists recognize that Alex masters about 80% of the exercises and questions presented him. Occasionally he will answer everything wrong but the rule of probability indicates that this is not error but a deliberate display of mischief or, perhaps, boredom and frustration. Recently another African gray named N'kisi, has stunned scientists with his communication skills, including light jokes. So these birds have a sense of humor! The idea of a sense of reason or inventiveness is not so far fetched either when N'kisi comes up with his own name for aromatherapy oils - 'pretty smell medicine'. This showed up elsewhere in the animal kingdom when Koko, an American Sign Language-speaking gorilla called a cucumber a green banana and, another time, playfully held a tube to her face and signed the word, 'elephant'. Dr. Jane Goodall, who studies interspecies communication with chimps, believes N'kisi is another outstanding example.

On another front, Ryan Reynolds of Ontario, Canada is conducting research with his speaking budgies and has created one of the largest animal intelligence research websites of its kind. His knowledge does not come from books or other people's theories, but from his own experiences. Ryan claims that his research takes him into the minds of his birds, revealing a surprising array of emotions and intelligence.

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