Talking birds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Talking birds are birds who can imitate human speech. Talking birds have varying degrees of intelligence and communication capabilities, some, like the crow, a highly intelligent bird, are only able to mimic a few words and phrases, while some budgerigars have been observed to have a vocabulary of almost two thousand words.

Contents

[edit] Budgerigars

[edit] Puck

Only recently has it been discovered that budgerigars are highly intelligent and masters of communication. In 1995 a budgerigar named Puck was credited by Guinness World Records as having the largest vocabulary of any bird, at 1,728 words. [1] Puck spoke his first words when he was about three months old, and by his first birthday he had already learned to speak 80 words.[2] By Puck's second year he had already learned to speak 975 words. Camille Jordan, Puck's owner, believes she only taught the bird 50 words and that he learned the rest of the words by hearing conversations in the house, radio, and television.[3] According to Camille, Puck's final word count was 1777, reached at the age of just under five years old.[4]

Not only did Puck have the ability to mimic human speech, there's evidence that he understood what he was saying. One day while Puck was enjoying listening to operatic arias when suddenly the owner suggested they change the tape to listen to light rock, the bird immediately interjected and proclaimed "I like this!", a sentence she has never heard the bird say before. In another occasion, when the owner greeted the bird, the bird responded with "Hi, mommy bird", apparently displaying consciousness. The owner proceeded to give the bird kisses, and minutes later Puck told her "I didn't want you to kiss me."[5] In one occasion, when one of the observers pleaded for the bird to slow its talking rate so that she could understand him better, Puck looked at her quizzically and asked, "What's wrong, stupid?"[6]

Puck utilized several aspects of language, such as alliteration, rhyme, and verb tense. Some examples of these that have been observed are "Pucky's a pleasure," "Oh shoot, parrot pursuit!", "Grateful Puck, you’d better wake up." , "Parrot talking, that’s something Pucky can do."[7]

Puck was also apparently capable of humor. Some examples of humorous phrases that Puck created are "Have you gone off your Pucker?", "We interrupt to say Bobby bird!", "Pucky, I’m a bird inside but I always wanted to be a cricket."[8]

[edit] Victor

Some believe Victor is the first bird to have demonstrated an ability to speak in context. Before Victor's first birthday he was able to pronounce the alphabet from a-z, and say many sentences and phrases. At two years old, Victor was able to make conversation. Later on Victor was able to properly use several hundred words in context to describe what he was thinking.[1]

[edit] African Grey Parrot

The African Grey Parrots are particularly noted for their cognitive abilities. Some of the most notable African Grey Parrots are Alex, Prudle, and N'kisi.

[edit] Alex

Alex has a vocabulary of about 100 words,[9] but he is one of the most famous birds because of his cognitive abilities. In 2005, World Science reported that Alex understands the concept of zero.[10]

[edit] Prudle

Prudle held the Guinness world record for bird with biggest vocabulary for many years with a documented vocabulary of 800 words. [11]

[edit] N'kisi

N'kisi is noted for his impressive English usage skills and other abilities. As of January 2004, he had a documented vocabulary of 950 words and shows signs of a sense of humor. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.[12]

[edit] Hill Mynas

Hill Mynas are renowned for their ability to mimic the human voice. Many have claimed that the Hill Mynah is the best talking bird and the best mimic in the world.[13]

[edit] Crows

Crows have long been considered to be highly intelligent, and top a bird IQ scale.[14]

[edit] See also

  • Lyrebird, ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment

[edit] References

  1. ^ in Claire Folkard (ed.): Guiness World Records 2004. Guinness World Records Limited, p. 54. ISBN 085112-180-2. 
  2. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/first_year.html
  3. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/turning_point.html
  4. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/last_months.html
  5. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/early_evidence.html
  6. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/further_evidence.html
  7. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/verbal_development.html
  8. ^ http://birdwithmostwords.com/chapters/humor.html
  9. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Studies-Cognitive-Communicative-Abilities/dp/067400051X
  10. ^ http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050701_parrotzero1frm.htm
  11. ^ http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1840&articleid=2268
  12. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3430481.stm
  13. ^ http://www.mynahbird.com/articles/mynahs/hills/hills.html
  14. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/4286965.stm
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/a/l/Talking_birds.html"
In other languages