We have known for a long time that some birds can imitate voices, the most famous of which is probably parrots. Even English uses the word "parrot" as a verb with the meaning "to repeat someone's exact words without understanding or thinking". However, have you ever thought why parrots can possess this skill?
The reason parrots like to imitate human voices
As it turns out, the ability to imitate other species' voices is not only developed in parrots, but also in all songbirds.
Parrots are famous for their ability to imitate human voices.
Songbirds and the ability to imitate calls
Some animals and birds have the ability not only to make their own species-specific sounds, but also to those of other species! Such animals are called vocal mimics.
Most species that can mimic voices are songbirds. Other birds, known as "suboscines", do not exhibit vocal mimicry, with the exception of a few species, such as parrots and hummingbirds.
About half of all bird species in the world are songbirds. Studies of zebra finches have shown that young birds learn and remember their species' sounds by mimicking the singing of their fathers or surrounding males, starting as early as a week after hatching and continue until they mature.
If isolated from the father during this sensitive period, the chicks may develop unusual calls. This shows the importance of modeling in the learning process of birds.
A bird is singing to call its fellows.
Thanks to their innate ability to learn to sing, songbirds are adept at improving pronunciation for a wide variety of voices.
Purpose of imitation
In the 1930s, scientists noticed that male parrots are better mimics than female parrots. From this, they deduced that the ability to imitate sounds is a consequence of learning to sing to attract mates in males. Furthermore, male songbirds mostly mimicked during the mating phase, confirming that the ability to mimic sounds developed as a by-product of song training.
It has also been found that some songbirds make sounds to distract predators.
Singing skills and evolution in birds
Usually, a singer with a wide vocal range will be more successful than a singer with a narrower vocal range. Similarly, male nightingales that have a wide vocal range to learn a wider range of songs have a higher chance of successful mating.
A parrot is imitating a human voice.
Through evolution, birds with limited singing ability were eliminated. Eventually, songbirds had such extensive vocal skills that they could not only imitate the voices of males of the same species but also from other species.
Thus, vocal mimicry emerges in songbirds as a by-product of learning to sing.
Speech imitation in parrots
Parrots are not in the group of songbirds, but they are most famous for their ability to imitate voices. Parrots can imitate complex pronunciations in human voices, learned from their caregivers.
The reason for this is neither to attract mates nor to repel predators, as scientists previously thought. Pet parrots often mimic humans to initiate social bonding, and they mimic other species in the wild for the same reason.
Imitation of human speech in parrots and learning to speak in humans
In a study on an African gray parrot, scientists observed that it not only mimics the human voice, but can also learn hundreds of words, the meaning of words, recognize objects. by name and even count! Research has led scientists to believe that parrots are not simply mimics, but that their pronunciation is very similar to human voices.
The African Gray Parrot known for its ability to speak human language was included in the study.
This is a huge discovery, as humans are the only animals known to be able to use "language" to date, but this study shows that parrots possess many abilities seen in humans, such as the ability to recognize rhythm and count.
As such, many studies show that parrots imitate human voices to increase social bonds with their owners. However, scientists have yet to figure out why and how vocal mimicry occurs in parrots and other suboscines, and whether this skill evolved in the same evolutionary way as songbirds. .
Why can parrots imitate human voices so much?
Parrots have a special ability to imitate the sounds they hear, whether in the wild or in the domesticated environment. Language is a product only in the development process of human society. In addition to the need to use the vocal cords (through rhythmic movements of the throat, tongue, teeth, and lips) to pronounce, a combination of vocabulary and language rules can also be expressed well. in the brain.
To a parrot, the sound originates from an organ called the syrinx or larynx located at the base of its windpipe. Normally, many birds have two vibrating membranes inside this organ, but parrots only have one. When sound exits the airways, parrots use their tongue and beak to tune them out. Parrots do this because they have a particularly flexible and powerful tongue.
The parrot's brain contains many interconnected regions that allow parrots to hear, remember, and speak at the same time.
Like other animals that have the ability to learn to speak, the parrot's brain contains interconnected regions that allow them to hear, remember, modify, and create complex sounds. While songbirds have only one system in their brain, most parrots have additional systems.
According to scientists, this can help parrots be more flexible when learning the calls of their species and human voices. With this specialized anatomy, parrots can bark, scream and memorize bits of information.
