Would you believe me if I told you that some parrots know how to video call each other?
Researchers tried to see if they could train parrots to make video calls to communicate with other parrots and reduce their loneliness.
It may seem like a far-fetched idea, but what drove them to push for this study is simply knowing how parrots behave.
Parrots are highly social creatures and naturally stay with their flock.
However, most are kept as pets, limiting their social, cognitive, and emotional stimuli.
Owners should always talk to them daily and mimic their sounds to ensure the parrots know they are heard and understood.
But that interaction would pale in comparison with their interaction with fellow parrots.
Hence, the researchers tried to find a way to increase a pet parrot’s social enrichment by training them to do video calls.
They first designed a framework to help parrots associate certain actions with a specific request.
The owners would need to slowly introduce each step and incorporate a new one to complete the chain of activities until they could make a video call.
They studied 15 birds for three months with this research problem:
“If given the opportunity, would parrot freely engage in calling other parrots?”
The owners first had to introduce the parrots to using a bell.
Ringing the bell would be associated with the parrot’s desire to initiate a call with another parrot.
Next, they had to learn to touch another bird’s photo on the screen.
The parrots would soon associate this action with choosing which bird to video call with.
These two steps were repeated for over two weeks before they did a “Meet and Greet” to introduce the birds to each other.
Based on their Meet and Greet, they assessed if the birds understood what they saw on screen.
This includes their positive and negative response when the other bird appears on the screen, like following the bird on the other line or walking away from them.
They continued until the parrots understood the association between ringing the bell and selecting a picture on the screen to initiating a video call.
After over 147 calls and 1,000 hours of recordings, the research finally answered their question.
Yes, training a parrot using this framework would help them learn how to trigger video calls using their agency.
They also found a correlation between incoming and outgoing calls saying that those birds who would often initiate a call also received calls in return.
During these calls, the parrots also learned to mimic what the other does, like singing, preening, and even playing.
All these sound like how humans interact and socialize, right?
These parrots have learned to reach out to each other and make friends despite the miles.
It shows that pet owners need to recognize their parrot’s social, cognitive, and emotional needs and help them socialize occasionally.
After all, we always say, “Birds of the same feather flock together,” and parrots just take that expression literally.
Watch the full video presentation of the research findings in the video below.
