“Parrots Learn How to Make Video Calls to Develop Long-Distance Friendships”

In a unique experiment, researchers from the United States and Scotland taught pet parrots how to make video calls to develop long-distance friendships.

The experiment involved the parrots learning to ring a bell that would lead to a caregiver fetching a tablet, the birds using their beaks to select an image of another bird on the screen, and then initiating a video call.

The team said the parrots displayed behaviors during the calls that mimicked the behavior of birds in the wild.

“There were a lot of natural behaviors that we saw among the birds, even though there was a barrier between them,” said Jennifer Kuna, a parrot behaviorist from Northeastern University.

The researchers pointed out that the parrots began to make friends through video calls, which showed preferences for making video calls over and over again with the same friends.

The study suggests that bird-to-bird video calls can improve the behavior of parrots kept as pets.