When it comes to animals who communicate, very few are as comical as cockatoos. I think we find them so hilarious because they’re so able to mimic us. Although it’s parrots who are most famous for being able to speak like humans, especially the African Grey Parrot, cockatoos are nearly equally gifted. However, they tend to know fewer words and they have less accuracy than parrots have. Cockatoos are only able to learn about 20-30 words, and that’s before they learn to mimic the voice of whoever taught the birds the words they’re speaking. In fact, it’s tone and inflection that are more usually copied.
These sweet birds are known for their tendency to babble or make a continuous flow of sounds that sound like nothing and have no resemblance to meaningful conversation or words. Cockatoos seem to mimic when they hear two people talking together. Also, natural sounds are easier for them to mimic, so mimicking laughter and things like that comes naturally to cockatoos. They can not understand language and birds don’t communicate with sentences and words as we do. What they do is learn to associate sounds or words with activities or objects. For example, they will say “Good morning” when the sun comes up if they’re been taught that.
For this reason, they can learn to say the correct words at the right time. They’re also great at copying other animals, such as crowing like a rooster or barking like a dog. We’ve seen some pretty hilarious videos of cockatoos mimicking people over the years, and we even have some of our favorites. Pebble the crazy cockatoo, for example. However, this cockatoo in this video is something else! He seems to enjoy canvassing his neighborhood looking for dogs to bark at. The funny little thing even growls when he sees the dogs.
YouTube
Enjoy this hilarious video!
