I’ve read about some parrots that seem like they must know what they are saying and not just mimicking, because they will say GREEN to a green color and SQUARE to a picture of a square shape. So why do so many people keep claiming that parrots and other talkers are not smart, just good at mimicking?
Some birds merely repeat words . Others seem to understand what they are saying You will often hear someone say their bird will bite them,say "Ouch. No bite.’; then laugh . If that isn’t understanding in context, I don’t know what is
I have a 25 year old nanday conure who was abused and had 3 homes before I got him from my vet at age 4. Sinbad is very intelligent and we have many simple conversations that make sense. here is an example. I have no idea where he learned some of the words but I know I didn’t teach them.
Sinbad looking at baby birds I was hand feeding in a Aquarium
Sinbad——"Wass that?"
Me—-"That’s baby birds"
Sinbad——"Wass that?"
Me—-"That’s baby birds"
Sinbad—–"Ohhhhhhhh" A pause then—–" Soooooo cute."
That floored me.
Recent research places parrots at the top of the list for animal intelligence
Will I’m not an expert by any means, but let me chime in on this from the perspective of someone who did parrot rescue and has been owned by several varieties of parrots.
I have a Goffin’s Cockatoo. Goblin does in fact mimick. If I were to tell her the colors of, and hand her five brightly colored objects over and over, at some point she would take each one and most likely recite it’s color back to me. You can call it mimicking, learned behavior, habit, etc….it’s all the same in my opinion and I agree wth you 100%.
It’s not that parrots aren’t smart, quite the opposite actually; but when comparing different species of parrot, it’s like comparing apples and oranges really. A Goffin’s Too, like my Goblin, functions at approximately the intelligence level of a two year old child. They can learn behavior just like any human child. Those human children are also mimicking behavior in the beginning. The bird reaches his/her potential and the child continues to grow mentally. Now say, an African Grey, they’re capable of functioning on a higher level, reportedly that of a five year old child. The African Grey, to the best of my knowledge, is still deemed the smartest of the parrot species. So that African Grey may be able to ratchet it up a notch and not only identify objects, etc, but he may be able to determine which of five keys or objects fits a particular hole.
I have serious difficulty believing that any creature who can look you in the eye and speak your language is unintelligent.
References :
Some birds merely repeat words . Others seem to understand what they are saying You will often hear someone say their bird will bite them,say "Ouch. No bite.’; then laugh . If that isn’t understanding in context, I don’t know what is
I have a 25 year old nanday conure who was abused and had 3 homes before I got him from my vet at age 4. Sinbad is very intelligent and we have many simple conversations that make sense. here is an example. I have no idea where he learned some of the words but I know I didn’t teach them.
Sinbad looking at baby birds I was hand feeding in a Aquarium
Sinbad——"Wass that?"
Me—-"That’s baby birds"
Sinbad——"Wass that?"
Me—-"That’s baby birds"
Sinbad—–"Ohhhhhhhh" A pause then—–" Soooooo cute."
That floored me.
Recent research places parrots at the top of the list for animal intelligence
References :