One of the key features of having a pet parrot is the ability to talk and mimic human sounds and voices. You should know that not all parrots can talk, and this ability varies in levels between breeds. Some parrots will show this ability without even training and some of them will need repeated training to do so. Some parrots will never speak a word.
Here Are The Best Talking Parrots
- African Greys
- Yellow-Naped Amazon Parrots
- Ringneck Amazon Parrots
- Eclectus Parrots
- Quaker Parrots
- Blue And Gold Macaws
- Budgies
African Grey Parrot
African Grey and its relative Timnah grey parrot are the best talking parrots out there. These breeds have shown an advanced ability to talk and mimic human sounds.
They can say words with a high level of clarity among other parrots. This breed of parrots can memorize up to 1000 words, and they have been under research by scientists more than other breeds.
Scientists concluded African greys are the most intelligent in the parrot’s family. They have an intelligence level of a 5-year-old human.
Read About Alex, the African Grey parrot who was the subject of a study for over 30 years, before he dies in 2007 at 45.
Here is my list of the smartest parrot breeds.
Yellow Naped Amazon Parrots
Yellow-naped parrot is one type of Amazonian breed. This breed is the best talker among every other 30 species of amazon parrots and compared to others, the Amazon Yellow-naped parrot can easily take second place after the grey parrots.
The speech clarity level for amazon yellow-naped parrot is high among other parrots, and with proper training and interaction with humans, they can memorize up to 300 words.
This breed is brilliant and clever, they also have happy and playful personalities, and they make a good family pet but they may show aggression, especially the males at the mating seasons, so be careful.
The Blue-Fronted Amazon is another relative to the yellow-naped parrot that has shown an extensive talking ability and intelligence.
Ringneck Parrots
The Ringneck family comprises 14 different types. The most popular of them as pets are the Indian Ring Neck parrot (Rose Ringed Parakeet) and the Alexandrian ringneck.
These two types of ring-necked parrots have almost similar behavior and personalities, they are good talkers and clever, and they make good pets for pet lovers who want a talking companion.
They can memorize up to 250 words easily. But all of this capacity and capabilities won’t get displayed without training and interaction with humans from an early age in their lives.
If you want a talking ring-necked parrot, try to get it as young as possible.
Eclectus Parrot
Eclectus parrots are also one of the best talking parrots out there. They have a good level of speech clarity, but this behavior is mostly occurring with male Eclectus. Female Eclectus can also talk, but not as the same as male individuals.
This parrot can make a very good pet, but the hard part about getting and raising Eclectus parrot is his diet, as this breed depends mainly on fresh fruits and veggies, and serving them seed as the key ingredient could cause them to have health problems.
Quaker Parrot
Quaker parrots are one of the most popular pet parrots around the world, and in the united states, they prohibited this breed in some states. Although this breed can memorize up to 60 words and can also sing songs, the clarity level is one the lowest among other breeds, and it can get very difficult to understand what they are saying.
Blue and Gold Macaws
Macaws are an icon for parrots around the world, although they are clever and intelligent and can learn tricks easily, they are still not the best talker among other parrots. But within the family, the blue and gold macaw has shown the best ability to talk. They can memorize up to 30 words, but with a low level of speech clarity.
Budgerigar (Parakeet)
Small Budgies AKA Parakeets are very famous for being excellent at talking and imitating human speech with a high level of clarity. But only with proper training and repeated voices, they can mimic sounds very similar to people, and they may surpass the other breeds of parrots.
Remember, not all budgies can talk unless they started listening to people at a very young age. And budgies will start talking approximately at 3-4 months of age.
they are easy to care for, but if you want one of them only for their ability to talk, try to get it as young as possible.
In 1995, the Guinness Book of World Records has certified a budgerigar Called Puck as a parrot with the largest vocabulary. Puck was superior with Vocabulary, but with clarity, Disco has surpassed him for sure.
What Makes These Parrots Best At Talking
A lot of birds and parrots can make noises based on the sound they hear usually in their surrounding area. However, not all of them will mimic it correctly, and some birds and parrots won’t even remember later. And this list is based on two things and are Clarity and Vocabulary.
Clarity
The clarity of the speech and pronunciation is an important sign in defining the best talking parrots. Most parrots can mimic and talk like humans, but the clarity can make it hard for owners to understand what word they said. Just like Most Cockatoos species, who can say words and mimic sounds, but it can be very hard to understand what they are saying or imitating.
Vocabulary
It is an important thing to know the capacity of the vocabulary that parrots can memorize and say. This thing depends on how long the parrot is around people, hearing repeated voices that are made by them. Some parrots can memorize a big number of words, and they can make a different sequence of sentences as they hear them often from their owners.
And some other parrots can get superior with clarity, but the vocabulary will remain weak. Some breeds can get superior in both Clarity and vocabulary.
Can All Parrots Talk?
This might be the most famous and false assumption about parrots that they all can talk. Although Most parrots can mimic human sounds, some of them won’t even pronounce a word even if the parrot was an African grey or from any other well-known breed for its talking abilities.
The ability to mimic human voice in parrots is like a buried skill, people and owners should start digging for it from an early stage of the parrot’s life. And this stage differs between one breed and another.
Some parrots will require a small amount of training, even if they were older, and some of them will need professional and repeated training from a young age as possible to memorize one word and say it, like hello or I love you.
The breeds mentioned above are the best talking parrots. But this doesn’t prevent other individuals from other breeds from talking if they for the proper training as early as possible.
Not only parrots family can talk and mimic human sounds, but there are also families of birds that have shown talking abilities after getting trained by their owners. Ravens and Songbirds are good examples.
Which Parrot is The Best For Talking?
African Grey Parrots and its relative Timnah Grey parrot, and some Amazonian parrots are the most skillful parrot to mimicking human sounds and voices. They can memorize a long list of words and they can pronounce them clearly. Not just that, these parrots can imitate any other sounds like ringtones and music, they also can make sounds similar to cats and dogs.
How To Train Parrots To Talk?
As mentioned above, parrots are vocal communicators and they can get trained to talk just by letting them hear people’s voices. This level of practice can succeed with parrots like African grey and amazon parrots.
Other breeds may need focused training to talk. You can talk to them clearly, and once they pronounce the word, use treats to make them understand that they just said something good. Parrots are clever and they will get the idea.
Related:
The 5 Most Expensive Parrots
The Most Cuddly Parrots
The Most Popular Parrots
Hello, my name is sadeq and I am obsessed about parrot And I am here to share everything about raising pet parrots and how to be good owners to your bird.
