How Does a Parrot Talk?

How Does a Parrot Talk?

Parrots are popular pets. Not only are they beautiful, but owners love how parrots talk. Some new owners are surprised, though, to find that parrots don't talk but instead just mimic what you say to them. They are copycats, not conversationalists. In fact, parrots are not really "talking" at all--they are whistling! Why then are we hearing words?

The Anatomy of a Parrot

Parrots are often assumed to have vocal cords in the same way that humans do. They not only don't have vocal cords at all, the only parts of their throat used in making sounds are the trachea and syrinx. A trachea is the tube that moves air from the beginning of the throat to the lungs in air breathing species. In addition, the parrot, at the far end of their trachea, has the syrinx. A parrot will make whistles when air goes through these two parts of its anatomy. As the trachea and syrinx bend or move, it can change how that whistle sounds. If you watch closely, you may be able to see that when a parrot says a certain word, it may always move his neck a certain way when saying that word. This forms the correct combination of whistle sounds to mimic the word. Different kinds of parrots will have different-sized trachea, and this will give some a better ability to mimic different tones.
Until recently it was thought that parrots only used these two throat parts in speech. It has been discovered now that in some species of parrots the tongue is also used to manipulate air and sound to mimic what they hear. This discovery disproves the theory that humans are the only species that use the tongue for actual speech as opposed to other sounds.

Copying or Conversing?

Parrots can be intelligent, but they cannot actually hold a conversation--they repeat what is said to them. Often they will learn to associate some words with certain actions. For example, some may make the connection between an activity and a word, so one might say the word "yum" or "thank you" when offered food.
The ability to link certain words with certain things can cause the most intelligent birds to do some amazing things. One parrot recently made news and was credited with saving a child's life.The little girl was choking; the child's care taker was in another room and heard the parrot screeching "Baby! Baby!" Going in to find out why the bird was screeching, she found the child turning blue and was able to save her life. So at some point the parrot was taught that "baby" related to the child. When it saw the child acting strangely, it was intelligent enough to mimic the learned word "baby."

Resources

• All About Parrots