According to a study from Japan published in the Mainichi Shimbun, parrot species not only can mimic human speech but also possess the ability to distinguish between languages such as English and Chinese.
To reach this conclusion, a research team from Keio University had Java parrots listen to audio recordings of English and Chinese translations of two famous works in Japan.
The first group of parrots was only allowed to eat after jumping onto a perch next to the English audio source. The second group could only eat after jumping onto a perch that played Chinese audio. In 75% of the cases, the parrots correctly identified the language that allowed them to eat and jumped onto the correct perch. Japanese was not used, as it is a language that the parrots hear daily.
Professor Shigeru Watanabe from the Department of Experimental Psychology at Keio University concluded that parrots, like humans, have the ability to distinguish languages, even those they do not know, based on tone and pronunciation.
