Pretty Bird: Images of a Clever Parrot

Gray Parrot

Gray parrot

(Image credit: © Sandra Mikolasch)

Gray parrots are known for their intelligence. Researchers working with one gray parrot, named Alex, found that he could communicate with a vocabulary of 150 words.

Parrot experiment

Gray parrot

(Image credit: © Sandra Mikolasch)

A new study, published June 21 in the journal Royal Society Biological Sciences, finds that parrots can use logical reasoning to find food hidden in one of two cups.

Bird Choices

Gray parrot

(Image credit: © Sandra Mikolasch)

When one parrot, named Awisa, saw two different types of food placed in a cup and later saw a researcher show her one of the types of food, she figured out that the researcher must have removed the food from one of the cups, leaving the other snack undisturbed. About 75 percent of the time, Awisa picked the undisturbed cup as the one that would contain a food treat.

Parrot Claw

Gray parrot

(Image credit: © Sandra Mikolasch)

Parrots are the first non-primates to demonstrate this kind of logical reasoning.

Curious Parrot

Gray parrot

(Image credit: © Sandra Mikolasch)

Human children can make these logical leaps by at least age four.

Bright Birds

Gray parrot

(Image credit: © Sandra Mikolasch)

Researcher Sandra Mikolasch, pictured here, says the research is reason to treat animals with respect. She did the experiment at a bird rescue facility, and many of the parrots had endured terrible conditions before being taken in by the facility.

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.