The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.
The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.
He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do.
N'kisi's remarkable abilities feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine.
N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.
About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material.
Hear (or read) an excerpt of N'kisi the parrot talking with his teacher, Aimee
African grey study
There was a study done awhile back.. hmm, probably going on about 15-20 years now, that the parrot could identify shapes and colors and so forth and was communicating nicely. They used an African Grey as well.
One has to wonder if it's slightly easier to teach a parrot, than to teach another type of animal, simply because they have the ability to communicate more effectively (that is, in a manner *we* more easily understand), whereas other animals' communication efforts may not be as readily seen or understood by us?
My mother's parrot definitely knows some words and knows their meanings. He meows when he sees our cats, says "bad dog" when he sees a dog.. uses cookie and water relating to his food and water dishes, although sometimes interchanges them. He calls my sister "heather" and me "eric" and my mother (his owner) "gramma" or "gra-ga" which is what my nephew used to call her. If he's being loud and you tell him "shhh, baby's sleeping" he starts saying the exact same things in a whisper (which is really funny at times).
I think these studies are really interesting. Parrots are very cool and have really good reasoning abilities, I think.