Talking Birds: Fact vs. Fiction

There are a number of tales involving talking animals, but these tales require our suspension of belief.  Even while we accept talking animals in the context of a story, we know that, in real life, animals don’t talk.  Or do they?

Buddy, a Double Yellow-headed Amazon Parrot

If you’ve ever walked into the World Bird Sanctuary Nature Center, you’ve probably been greeted by a cheery “Hello!” from one of our resident parrots.  Perhaps you’ve been surprised with a “Hi!” from one of our ravens as you walk past our birds on the display line.

Some birds do have the ability to learn to mimic certain words of the human language.  In fact, some birds, if worked with regularly, have even been known to learn word associations and string together sentences.  There are some surprisingly intelligent species of bird out there.

Aesop one of our resident birds....and, no, you don't have to split his tongue to make him talk.

There is a popular myth that in order to get a crow to learn to talk, you first have to split its tongue.  There are two things wrong with this myth: 1) it’s cruel, and 2) it’s just that – a myth.  Birds that talk don’t do so in the same way we do.  Humans use their lips, tongue, and teeth to help form sound, and in case you haven’t noticed, birds don’t have lips or teeth.  They do have beaks and tongues, but neither of these are used by a bird to produce sound.  Birds use their syrinx to produce sound.  The syrinx is the avian version of our larynx, or voicebox.  All of those fantastically different sounds that birds make are produced by varying the amount and velocity of air moving across the syrinx.

One stunning example of this variety of sound is found in the Lyrebird, an Australian species.  This performer will mimic as many different bird calls and sounds as he can in order to attract a mate. 

Superb Lyrebirds have an amazing vocal range

A popular video featuring David Attenborough captures this array of vocal gymnastics…and more.  The Lyrebird caught on camera in that trending video also mimics the sounds of camera shutters, car alarms, and even chainsaws.  Yes, birds can mimic sounds produced by machinery; however, most birds that can do so have been raised in captivity.  The Lyrebird in Attenborough’s video did, in fact, belong to a zoo.  Not that this makes the Lyrebird any less impressive.  Along with the chirps and whistles of other birds, Lyrebirds can also mimic the whooping chatter of a Laughing Kookaburra with startling skill.

Since learning human speech, or any other sound, requires lots of repetition, you are unlikely to encounter a wild crow or raven that will greet you in the same manner as the birds at the Sanctuary.  Unless you’re willing to spend every morning repeating the same thing to that noisy crow in your front yard, you’ll have to stop by the World Bird Sanctuary for your fix of talking birds; however, leave the crows’ tongues alone please.

Submitted by JoHanna Burton, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist

Why Do Birds Talk?

When a World Bird Sanctuary bird show concludes at Stone Zoo in North Boston, people often come up and ask us questions about the birds. 

Members of the corvid family are know for their ability to mimic human speech

One of the questions I am frequently asked is why parrots, like Nemo, our African Gray Parrot, talk.  Well…they can’t really talk, but have the ability to mimic sounds they hear.  To answer this, we must start a little earlier than the training process.  Actually many bird species such as corvids (crows, jays ravens), starlings, mynas, and lyrebirds have been observed mimicing human speech and also many other sounds, but many of the birds in our show, such as raptors and chickens, cannot learn to mimick. 

So why can't Clark, our Bald Eagle, talk?  Well, it turns out that not all birds are vocal learners and not all birds have the necessary degree of control of their syrinx for mimicry.   In fact, vocal learning has only been found in songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds.  This means that these birds are not hatched knowing the same songs and sounds they make as adults, but pick them up from their environment, much as humans are not born knowing languages such as English or German.  Most birds learn these sounds from their parents or neighbors. 

Additionally, birds do not have vocal cords, but rather make sounds using their syrinx, which is located at the point where the trachea divides into two bronchial tubes.  There is great diversity in the structure of the syrinx, especially between orders of birds.  This difference allows for a varying degree of complexity and control over the sounds a bird can make.

Now that we know why some birds cannot talk, the next question is why would birds ever learn to talk at all?  Well, it all starts with good mimicry.  Many young male songbirds will learn the songs of their neighbors, called song sharing, in order to help with the establishment of territory and attraction of a mate.  Males will often respond to a rival male with the same song, or a song they both know.  In some birds, the larger the repertoire of sounds, the more likely they are to find a mate. 

Still other birds such as the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, have been found to preferably learned the alarm calls and mobbing calls of the other species in their area over all other sounds.  Learning the context of calls can be an advantage in this situation since these calls can then be used to recruit other nearby species to help scare away a predator.  

Mimicry can be used as a way to fit into the flock.  For example, Yellow-naped Amazon Parrots form regional dialects between flocks, which are unrelated to genetics.  This means that new parrots joining the flock must learn that flock's dialect.  It can be seen how being a good mimic could be advantageous in fitting in and being accepted by the new flock.

Parrots and Macaws are some of the bird world's best mimics

Parrots are naturally very social animals and use their calls and body language to communicate with their flock.  When we keep parrots in our homes, we as humans become their flock.  Parrots will naturally imitate the people they live with and try to establish a means of communication, just as they would the birds in their wild flock.  When a parrot imitates a word, most people are initially excited that their bird said something they understand and give the parrot attention.  This reinforces saying those words more often.  But this does not mean the parrot is talking.  He is merely repeating a noise that gets attention.  The reaction reinforcing the behavior does not have to be from a human either. Nemo, our African Grey Parrot, loves to mimic Locust, our Red-legged Seriema, because she also gives a (very loud) response.

Once a word is in Nemo's repertoire, we reinforce not just saying specific words or sounds, but saying them after we give the corresponding specific cue phrases.  Some of these cues and response words are put together for Nemo's “fairy tale” (a routine we’ve trained Nemo to do during his part of the bird show).

Nemo the African Grey Parrot is one of our most prolific "talkers"

So, our parrots can correctly respond to cues, but can they actually talk?  Well, not much that we know of, but only because we haven't taught them the meanings behind any of the words they say.  For example, when we ask Nemo, "what does a kitty cat say?", he responds with "Meow".  But, since Nemo has probably never seen a real cat meowing, he won't make any connection between the animal "cat" and the sound "meow", but he knows that when we give the cue phrase and he says "meow" he gets a treat. 

 In order for a bird to learn the meaning of a word and really "talk", they must have some context in which the word applies and be able to interact with it in order to really understand the word's meaning.  One African Gray parrot named Alex is now well known for his demonstrations of word comprehension to the scientific community.

While Nemo has never been taught what words mean, he seems to have figured out the meanings of a few words himself. When changing his water, Nemo often makes the sound for water without being cued.  One day during the middle of a show, Nemo told Josh, another show trainer, "Wagner next."  Wagner, our Red-tailed Hawk, was next in the order of birds in the show! Possibly a coincidence, but it just goes to show that we honestly don't have any idea how much Nemo really understands.

Submitted by Michaela Henneberg, World Bird Sanctuary Trainer, Stone Zoo, Boston