Study Examines Whether Companion Parrots Use Learned Labels for People and Other Animals

Companion parrots use names to label specific people and animals in their households, according to a study published in PLOS One in 2026. 0346830 and was authored by Lauryn Benedict, Viktoria Groiss, Marisa Hoeschele, Eva Reinisch and Christine R. Dahlin.

Lauryn Benedict, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado who studies animal communication and social behavior, led the research. The team included collaborators from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Christine Dahlin is a long-time collaborator of Benedict.

' survey. A second survey called the 'Bird Singalong and Speech Project' collects recordings of talking or singing birds. The vocalizations analyzed in the new study were collected by the ManyParrots project, which was originally inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

The study examined reports on 884 parrots of 78 species. People gave examples of the sounds, words and phrases used by those birds. Of those reports, 47% included examples of name use.

The project received 413 audio clips, of which 88 parrots appeared to be using names as labels for people and animals. Benedict said the team did not originally intend to examine the phenomenon. "We didn’t set out to study name use," she said.

The researchers were surprised by the prevalence of the behavior. "I was surprised by how frequently people reported that companion parrots communicate using names," Benedict said in email. The findings align with how wild parrots communicate.

"Wild parrots use vocal signals to organize their complicated social lives. She added that although companion parrots generally address humans rather than other parrots, the underlying learning and cognitive processes appear identical.

"Although companion parrots are generally talking to humans instead of other parrots, we expect that they have the same learning and cognitive processes as wild birds," Benedict said in email. Forbes reported that the study suggests parrots possess the cognitive and vocal skills to use names in varied contexts, including referring to individuals who are not present.

A 2022 study by the same team analyzed vocal repertoires of males and females and found no differences by sex across most species, including grey parrots.

In budgie and galah species, however, males are more talkative than females. At the species level, cockatiels, Fischer’s lovebirds and Senegal parrots all copy more sounds than language-based phrases. The ManyParrots project relied on contributions from amateur scientists who submitted whatever examples they chose to report.

Benedict noted that the team did not request exhaustive lists from participants.