What does Polly say? Community science data reveal species differences in vocal learning by parrots

[Still Waters]

While most animals don't learn their vocalizations, everyone knows that parrots do—they are excellent mimics of human speech. But how large is the vocabulary of different parrot species? Do males "talk" more than females? Does a parrot's vocabulary expand with age? A new study publishing Dec. 5 in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, titled "A survey of vocal mimicry in companion parrots," adds to what we know about animal vocal learning by providing the largestcomparative analysis to date of parrot vocal repertoires.

The paper documents species differences in vocal mimicry, shows that many parrots use words in appropriate contexts, and highlights the value of crowd-sourced data.

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-polly-community-science-reveal-species.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24335-x