Engleski A - 2024./25. probna - reading 5.

These clever birds can give TED talks and even

heavy metal bands. Why can parrots talk, when even our closest primate relatives cannot?

It is parrots' intensely socialised lives that bring

their resulting vocal prowess. In the wild, they are constantly sharing information and negotiating their positions within their flocks.

It has even been demonstrated that parrots do use regional dialects. For example, birds transplanted to a new area

adapt their calls to the new environment.

Most parrots have little interaction with people, but

in captivity, they will turn their attention to their new social situation and, crucially, have predisposition and ability on their side in their attempts to integrate themselves into human settings.

Here, what they 'say' generally reflects associations rather than particular meanings: a 'hello' call, for example, may be a recognition that someone new has entered a room, rather than a greeting as

However,

a parrot be trained,

it will request specific kinds of food, identify different colours, count in single figures and use concepts like 'bigger', 'smaller', 'same' and 'different': in effect, turning

meaningful language. In laboratory environments, vocabularies can reach about 100 words and some birds have even shown the ability to invent compound words, demonstrating the faculty of abstract thought.

Thus, the consensus would seem to be that parrots are

proficient at language, perhaps to the same extent as an infant child. Nevertheless, they are far from the only creatures whose vocalisations lead to the acquisition of food. We pay special attention to them because we believe we understand what we hear from them.