The African grey parrot is characterized by distinctive scalloped gray plumage and red tail feathers. They are native to a wide section of Africa including Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria. These parrots are more likely to learn to mimic sounds or talk than any other bird. What is particularly interesting about their mimicking ability is that it is often so exact it is difficult to tell the bird from the real thing.

Many times other species of parrots tend to maintain an element of their own voice in when they mimic, but when an African grey parrot learns to say hello it can sound exactly like the person he is mimicking.

An African grey parrot named 'Einstein' resides at the Knoxville Zoo where she helps get children excited about animals and conservation. She will listen and concentrate on her trainer during these sessions. She can often get a new sound on cue in just a matter of a few weeks. She is famous for her spectacular performance on the TV show 'Pet Star'.

Some of these sounds are ones that humans are not capable of copying. A favorite sound to copy for many African grey parrots is the sound of water pouring. The number of African grey parrots who pick up this sound is astounding. African grey parrots are also notorious for learning to copy many other sounds they typically hear such as microwave beeps, answering machine tones, and smoke alarms. Not only can they develop an extensive vocabulary, this sensitive species can learn to understand what it’s saying.

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