# Parrots developed the ability to imitate sounds. What for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310 "2011-09-05T21:46:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/1 "2011-09-05T21:46:44Z")
Through positive reinforcement it’s possible to get a parrot to say ‘Pauly wants a cracker’. It doesn’t understand any of the words in that sentence, it just knows if it does that sound combination it gets a cracker, but nature helped it out a bit because no amount of treats will get your dog to say, ‘Fido wants a bone’. All types of animals use sounds for all kinds of purposes, but whether it means ‘I want to get my sex on’, ‘Danger!’ or ‘back off asshole’ at least the creatures in that species understand what that sound means. So a parrot builds a nest by a swamp and develops the ability to croak like a frog. What is the evolutionary use of that? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/2 "2011-09-05T21:58:17Z")
Evolution doesn’t always have a purpose. Sometimes things just evolve, and if there’s nothing to select species members that don’t have the trait, it stays. This isn’t exactly my field of expertise (not even close) but I’ve heard it theorized that the trait has stuck around because it helps males attract mates. It may have started just with the ability to make more complex sounds and songs and turned into mimicking after that. Researchers have discovered that parrots who are better at mimicking things also have better problem solving abilities, so it might either be a side effect of that or might just go hand in hand with it. ETA: And at least sometimes, the parrots do understand something about what they are saying. Parrots have been trained to ask for specific things when they want them, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/3 "2011-09-05T22:06:10Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > ETA: And at least sometimes, the parrots do understand something about what they are saying. Parrots have been trained to ask for specific things when they want them, for example. “Pauly want a goddamn glass of water to go with his freakin’ cracker!” ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/4 "2011-09-05T22:42:10Z")
I thought it was to mock their pirate masters? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/5 "2011-09-05T22:53:48Z")
Just a wild-ass guess here, but if a species could learn to imitate the sounds made by their prey, couldn’t they use the skill to lure a meal to come right to them? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/6 "2011-09-05T23:05:56Z")
Given that the sound-imitating birds in the wild all use that ability to construct elaborate mating calls, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s why parrots do it, too. Though of course free crackers are a nice side benefit, too. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/7 "2011-09-05T23:21:03Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Just a wild-ass guess here, but if a species could learn to imitate the sounds made by their prey, couldn’t they use the skill to lure a meal to come right to them? That is a pretty wild guess since parrots are almost exclusively vegetarian. Many bird species have to learn their songs/calls, and this seems to be just another example of that, albeit a more elaborate one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/8 "2011-09-05T23:50:51Z")
It is a self-preservation device so that fictional parrots in mysteries and jokes will survive until the denouement or punchline. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/9 "2011-09-06T00:41:42Z")
Most birds do communicate by sound and some have quite elaborate calls. Parrots are out at the end of this curve but that’s not too surprising - parrots are one of the most intelligent bird families. So it’s no more surprising that parrots have a wide range of vocal expressions than it is for primates or dolphins. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/10 "2011-09-06T01:05:45Z")
Many female birds judge male birds by the complexity of their songs. So, many male birds not only sing very complex songs, but incorporate other bird songs in their songs. And, sometimes they simply imitate sounds they hear in the forest. Mocking birds, Lyre birds and Parrots all mimic various sounds. Here’s a video of a Lyre bird imitating [a camera shutter, car alarm, and a chainsaw chainsaw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/11 "2011-09-06T01:08:13Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > ETA: And at least sometimes, the parrots do understand something about what they are saying. Wife was present when a cockatiel that had been, er, overserved (he liked Hawaiian Punch and didn’t mind additives) at a party the night before was asked if he had fun. He was still wobbly and slurred, “Shut up.” I don’t know if he then puked in his cage. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/12 "2011-09-06T01:11:31Z")
I heard\* that Parrots don’t imitate sounds in the wild, but only in captivity and (much like a the poor echoless duck) no one knows why. - from an old episode of QI ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/13 "2011-09-06T01:21:48Z")
[Previous SDSAB answer to this question.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1745/why-do-parrots-imitate-sounds) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/14 "2011-09-06T02:16:48Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > That is a pretty wild guess since parrots are almost exclusively vegetarian. Actually… not. It has been found that parrots are opportunistic omnivores. They don’t take down cows because they aren’t big enough (although the kea, from New Zealand, will attack and eat sheep while cooperating in flocks/packs). But birds of all sorts eat bugs and arthropods. I’ve had a parrot of African descent that was as avid a mouser as any cat. Macaws (South American) have been known to go after rabbits and even small deer in the wild. Pet parrots have been found to do better if they are provided with a little animal protein (which may be as simple as eggs) along with, yes, a mostly but \*not \*exclusively vegetarian diet. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/15 "2011-09-06T02:28:09Z")
[_Science_ July 22, 2011](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6041/398.full?sid=696af98d-3288-419f-85bd-4104e92aeeb0). > [@](#): > > BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY > Why Do Parrots Talk? Venezuelan Site Offers Clues … > > … the contact calls of wild parrotlet nestlings—vocalizations that function much like a name—are not genetically programmed. Instead, they learn these calls from their parents, almost like human children learning their names, Berg and colleagues reported in a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. … Berg compared spectrograms and statistically analyzed 5000 such calls. He found that the parents provided a basic call template, which each chick learned and slightly modified to make its own unique contact call. Nestlings in the same family acquired slightly similar calls no matter who their biological parents were, enabling family members to recognize each other after they left the nest. Like humans, parrotlets have extended parental care, with parents feeding fledglings for another 3 weeks. The young birds roost in large, communal groups with as many as 300 other recently fledged chicks—“which makes it just that much harder for the parents to find their own kids,” Berg says. “They’d never manage without the contact calls.” > > Others find the study convincing and want more. “Berg’s study gets at the heart of why they are learning that initial contact call of the parents,” Wright says. “Through the parrotlets we have the opportunity to find out if this kind of learning extends into adulthood. It seems that it does, because the parrotlet pairs match their calls—but, again, why?” > > One obvious next question is whether parrotlet parents deliberately give chicks contact calls, as human parents give children their names. No other species has yet been shown to do this, but such a behavior would help the young birds establish identities in their highly social communities, Berg says. So the social bonding hypothesis proferred by the SDSAB is in the ballpark, but parent/child bonding in a complex social system more than mate bonding. Thus the imitation of an owner’s words is less mating with that owner than taking it on as a surrogate parent and learning a new contact call. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/16 "2011-09-06T03:25:33Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Actually… not. > > It has been found that parrots are opportunistic omnivores. They don’t take down cows because they aren’t big enough (although the kea, from New Zealand, will attack and eat sheep while cooperating in flocks/packs). But birds of all sorts eat bugs and arthropods. I’ve had a parrot of African descent that was as avid a mouser as any cat. Macaws (South American) have been known to go after rabbits and even small deer in the wild. Actually, yes. Most parrots gets most of their calories from vegetable matter, not from other animals. The do not, as offered in the post I responded to, lure prey by imitating their sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/17 "2011-09-06T05:43:55Z")
I wonder, is the template provided by the parents related in any way to the individual contact call of one or both of the parents? And is there any pattern to which parts of the contact call follow the template, and which parts are modified? It sounds like it could be that parrots not only have names, but maybe they even have “surnames” and “given names”. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/18 "2011-09-06T07:50:50Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Here’s a video of a Lyre bird imitating [a camera shutter, car alarm, and a chainsaw chainsaw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y). Does anyone know if this is for real? The car alarm I can buy, but the camera shutter and the chainsaw sound really incredible. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/19 "2011-09-06T08:07:46Z")
It’s real. Can’t watch the clip from where I am at the moment, but if it’s the one with David Attenborough in it, it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310/20 "2011-09-06T08:10:05Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > Does anyone know if this is for real? The car alarm I can buy, but the camera shutter and the chainsaw sound really incredible. [Yep, real](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeQjkQpeJwY). They’re really quite amazing mimics. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parrots-developed-the-ability-to-imitate-sounds-what-for/595310.md?page=2)