Mitthu, meaning sweet, seems to have become a generic name for most pet parrots in our country—from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh, and from Odisha to Andhra Pradesh. As a child, I saw Mitthu in a cage assisting fortune-tellers, and 50 years later, I watched a story on YouTube where Mitthu aided the police solve a murder in a U.P. town.
The murderer killed the dog who he thought could give him away, before stabbing to death his old and frail aunt for money in her home. He apparently did not reckon that the parrot could be as smart a ‘witness’ as a dog. Mitthu, its whole body shaking with fear, shrieked a “han (yes)” many times over when asked about the identity of the killer– among a choice of names of regular visitors to the house.
Famed for its intelligence and linguistic abilities, the parakeet can cultivate a vocabulary of 250 words in human company, and demands tremendous attention as a pet. Denial of that can lead to great stress for the bird.
In the wild, it is the most acrobatic bird, hanging upside down from cables and trees, looking for food. Its ability to grip hard food in its feet and bite with its sharp beak, tools of carnivorous birds, makes the parrot a master in fruit eating. Raw mango, guava and anaar we can’t cut easily even with a knife, are just a matter of a few bites for the parrot. Of course, the bird is smart enough to sample and throw the raw ones.
If your surroundings have these three trees, and you are a happy host to the avian visitors, your place would be a hot eating joint for all birds, but most of all, parrots.
Wild parrots seem to have a collective memory about their exploitation by humans for centuries. They simply do not trust us. Besides, nature has given them a perfect camouflage in their green colour. Thanks to that, they can sit undetected for long in the foliage of a low tree like guava.
I have felt outsmarted by parrots quite often, not able to see them until they take wings. I have got some great shots of other birds on low perches, but no such luck with parrots.
The smartness of parrots has prompted scientific studies which have proved that the expression bird brain for a dim wit is a misnomer. In reality, a grey African parrot is smarter than a five-year-old child.
Psychology researcher at Harvard, Irene Pepperberg, has experimented with two African grey parrots, first Alex and then Griffin. According to an article in The Harvard Gazette, “Griffin knows the names of a dozen objects. He can identify five colors and six shapes, and grasps his numbers up to eight. He can ask for his favourite treats and tell you where he’d like to go.”
Quoting Pepperberg, the article further said, “If you were in the lab for a half-day, so they (parrots) were no longer afraid of you, you could probably take a credit card out of your wallet and ask Griffin about its attributes. He could tell you that the shape is ‘four-corner’ and that the color is green.”
She also talked about Alex, work with whom brought her to the limelight.
“Alex was able to transfer concepts that he learned from one domain to another, so he learned ‘none’ with respect to same and different, and transferred it to size and to quantity.”
Pepperberg said birds like Griffin can also boost conservation efforts.
“We’re demonstrating that these birds are sentient creatures. ..In terms of conservation, people love to conserve animals that share qualities with humans, so if we can show that these birds — which are an endangered species — are really as smart as a 5- or 6-year-old child, that can help with conservation efforts.”
Coming back to the parrots in our surroundings, they talk a lot in flight, which is uncommon for most other backyard birds. Of course, like all male birds, they are more chatty than the female parrot, are brighter in colour and bigger, with longer tails. The black-red ring around the neck of the male is also its distinguishing feature, making it prettier than the female.
Discussion about this post