The Genius of Birds

by Jennifer Ackerman

A male budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) shows his commitment to his mate by drumming up a perfect imitation of her “contact” call, the special call she uses to keep in touch with her partner as she flies, feeds, and otherwise goes about her day. These small sociable Australian parrots are monogamous but also very gregarious; they like to hang out in large flocks. After only a few days together, pair-bonded budgerigars can converge on the same contact call, with the male managing a bona fide imitation of the female. Her call becomes his. The female uses the accuracy of his imitation to judge his commitment to courting her and his suitability as a mate. Nancy Burley of the University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues who study the budgerigar suspect that this may be the evolutionary reason for the ability of parrots to parrot—to quickly learn and mimic new sounds: “It could also explain why parrot enthusiasts suggest that the ‘best talkers’ among pet budgerigars are typically males that were obtained when very young and kept in isolation from other budgerigars,” write the scientists. “Budgerigars raised under these conditions probably become imprinted on humans and may begin to court them.”