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African Grey parrot

African Grey Parrot

The African grey parrot's ability to talk and mimic sounds makes this medium-sized parrot a captivating companion. African grey owners often report that their greys oftentimes talk in context and seem very attuned to their people's emotions. The African grey ...

Latest Articles

African grey parrot, African grey, grey

Inide Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Being Sensitive to the World as Your Bird Sees It

In her latest blog, Dr. Irene Pepperberg shares a fascinating finidng from her cognitive behavior research lab, where African grey parrot, Griffin, suddenly struggled with a once-mastered task. After months of testing and frustration, the team discovered the surprising culprit ...
African grey parrot

The Story of Dr. Pepperberg & Alex the African Grey Turned Into A Play!

In her latest blog, Dr. Irene Pepperberg reflects on the upcoming play "Beyond Words," which dramatizes her remarkable 30-year research relationship with Alex, the infamous African grey parrot who took the world of animal behavior research by storm. Dr. Pepperberg ...
African grey parrot, grey

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: How Grey Parrots Produce Human Speech

Journey inside the avian vocal tract as Dr. Irene Pepperberg explains how African grey parrots miraculously produce human speech ...
Webinar: The Grey Way—The Older Grey 

Webinar: The Grey Way—The Older Grey 

Learn how to care for your aging African grey parrot in this free webinar with parrot expert Lisa Bono, focused on maximizing comfort and quality of life for older greys. Lisa will share insider tips on identifying age-related issues, determining ...
Lisa Bono webinar November 10, 2023

Webinar: The Grey Way: Ask Lisa Anything About Greys!

There are many sides to African grey parrots—highly intelligent, capable of being brilliant mimickers, sometimes full of shenanigans...the list goes on and on. In this episode of The Grey Way, Lisa Bono will channel her years of experience living with ...
webinar 53 slide promotes Lisa Bono discussing bird sitting, boarding, and travel

Webinar: The Grey Way: Time to Travel: Bird Sitter, Boarding or Hitting the Road? with Lisa Bono, CPBC

Join us for a free webinar on August 13 with Lisa Bono, a certified parrot behavior consultant specializing in African grey parrots, as she presents Episode 4 of The Grey Way, a Lafeber Pet Birds Webinar Series focusing on Congo ...
webinar 41 slide promotes Dr. Scott Echols discussing grey parrot anatomy project

Webinar: Grey Parrot Anatomy Project: An Update & Relevance to all Parrot Species

Dr. Echols will give us an update on the Grey Parrot Anatomy Project, which aims to create an accurate physical and digital anatomy reference of the African grey parrot ...
African grey parrot face

Webinar: “The Grey Way: Understanding The African Grey Parrot”

Join us this Friday for a free, interactive webinar. Our guest, Lisa Bono, CPBC, owner and operator of The Platinum Parrot and an associate-certified parrot behavior consultant specializing in African grey parrots, will present "The Grey Way: Understanding the African ...
african grey training

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: African Grey Parrots Show Self-Control

Grey parrots may sometimes be impulsive—think about how often you may have had to give your bird multiple timeouts for the same behavior (like chewing on your sunglasses) in a very short time period. However, my students and I have ...
African greys on beach set

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Fun Fundraising Featuring The Parrots

Devising new ways to test parrots' cognitive skills is the exciting part of Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her staff's work. The challenging part is finding the exact words to sum up a study — and the even more challenging part ...
African grey parrot given choice of cups with rewards

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Do Parrots Understand “Process of Elimination?”

Process of elimination and inference are two powers of reasoning, and Dr. Pepperberg conducted fascinating tests to determine the existence of inference in African greys ...
Dr Pepperberg and African grey parrot

Inside Pepperberg’s Lab: Do Parrots Engage In Cooperative Behavior?

Will African grey parrots share food or ask humans for help? The latest experiments at Dr. Pepperberg's lab give some interesting answers! ...
African grey parrot on a perch

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Do Parrots Understand Probability?

To test a parrot's ability to understand probability, Dr. Irene Pepperberg's cognitive behavior research lab recently presented African grey parrot Griffin with a task similar to what a 6-8 year-old child might be tasked to do — using three of ...
African grey, grey parrot, African grey parrot

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Research Lab: “What’s Mine is Mine and What’s Yours is Mine”

“What’s mine is mine and what’s your is mine.” Does this sum up your feathered friend's antics? Dr. Irene Pepperberg explains not only how this parrot quirk is based on natural behavior, but she also shares how we can use ...
African grey, African grey parrot, grey parrot

Inside Pepperberg’s Lab: African Grey Griffin Speaks His Mind

As companion animals, parrots are unique in that they can use human language to verbally communicate with us. Dr. Irene Pepperberg knows first-hand the advantages of working with such communicative subjects. African grey Griffin, for example, can verbalize requests to ...
african grey parrot

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Prepping For A Film Crew Visit

Inviting a film crew into a research lab devoted to the study of cognitive behavior in parrots involves not only prepping the lab, but the parrots and the filmmakers. Dr. Irene Pepperberg shares her account of having a film crew ...
African grey parrot being shown red triangle block

How Dr. Pepperberg Chooses What Topics To Study

The inspirations for topics of Dr. Pepperberg's African grey studies come from many different sources, and all add up to fascinating information being revealed ...
African grey parrot Athena drinking grape juice from tiny cup

Inside Pepperberg’s Lab: Parrots’ Cognitive Abilities Put To The Liquid Test

After a certain age, children are able to understand conservation of amounts. Can birds also understand that a change in shape might not change the amount? ...
African grey parrot being shown red triangle block

Inside Pepperberg’s Lab: African Grey Athena’s Antics

Our youngest bird, Athena, can present some interesting challenges to our research. We sometimes joke that she doesn’t have an “off switch.” ...
African grey parrot Athena drinking grape juice from tiny cup

Inside Pepperberg’s Lab: Catering to Parrots’ Tastes

Dr. Pepperberg reveals some unconventional, and unsung, activities needed to get data from the African grey parrots in her lab ...
African grey parrot being shown red triangle block

Pepperberg’s Parrots Surprise With Word Choices

The talkative African grey parrots Dr. Pepperberg works with in her research lab communicate in English, and sometimes they surprise lab staff. See why! ...
Dr Pepperberg nose to beak with African grey named Griffin

Parrots Find Creative Ways To Delay Bedtime

With cognitive abilities matching that of a 5-6 year old, African grey parrots can likewise come up with some creative distractions to delay bedtime. This month, Dr. Pepperberg gives us a look back at the bedtime antics of Alex the ...
African grey parrot on a perch

Parrots Can Play Mind Games

Research with parrots leads to some unexpected results. Some pleasant, like learning words that weren't trained, and some unpleasant, like acting out ...
African Grey Parrot on a perch looks at two differenty sized and colored plastic cups

Day in the Life of Pepperberg’s Parrots

Curious to know what an average day is like in Dr. Irene Pepperberg's research lab on the Harvard campus? Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of African greys Griffin and Athena! ...
African grey parrot on perch leaning forward

A Microchip Can Bring Your Lost Bird Home

The story of Nigel, the African grey parrot that returned home speaking Spanish, is a good example of how a microchip can facilitate a happy reunion for lost pet ...
head profile shot of African grey parrot for Grey Parrot Anatomy Project

The Grey Parrot Anatomy Project

The Grey Parrot Anatomy Project aims to create an accurate physical and digital anatomy reference, including a standardized basis for avian anatomy nomenclature, of the African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus erithacus) ...
Hyacinth macaw

New World Parrots: Conures, Amazons, Macaws & More

Parrots can be categorized according to Old World psittacines and New World psittacines. Do you know if your parrots are "Team Old World" or "Team New World"? ...
African grey parrot

New Pepperberg Research: Can Parrots Share?

Sharing seems to be less common in our nonhuman primate relatives, and appears to occur only under some fairly specific conditions. But what about creatures that are not primates? Our recent studies suggest that African grey parrots also can engage ...
Presidents & Their Pet Parrots

Presidents & Their Pet Parrots

Can you imagine a parrot perched in the White House? It’s probably happened at some point during our country’s history; after all, some of our past presidents had parrot companions during their presidencies. Here is a list of presidents who ...
Dr. Pepperburg

Life After Alex

Five years after Alex’s passing, he is still sorely missed; by me and, I believe, by Griffin and Arthur, the other African grey parrots in my lab. Days still exist, particularly when I return after a long absence, during which ...

Ask Lafeber

male African grey

My male African grey has suddenly started biting very aggressively. Although I have become more bonded with him ...

African Grey Health

My parrot is almost 1.5 years old. He is really loving and calm. However he excretes waste a lot. After every few minutes he excretes. And another thing that worries me is that he tries to fly but hasn’t quite ...

African Grey breeding couple

Hi. I already asked about a 4 years old male and 10 years old female greys. I already have all the requirements you mentioned and a great diet but i am confused about them getting along. I don't mind not ...

African Grey breeding couple

Hi. I have a 4 years old African grey that has beed very sexual/hormonal in the past two months so i have decided to get him a female so that he might bond with her. I know it might never ...

Talking African Grey

I have a mature very talkative African Grey My sister in law wants to give me her African Grey as she is unable to keep it. Would my African Grey stop speaking if I bring this other African Grey into ...

African Gray – Health Consultation

Hi, I have a cute African Grey that is happy and super active. Suddenly, we noticed since this morning abnormal thing where he becomes very quite & looks sick. I don't know what's happening but it is kind of flu ...

African grey sick or not

My African grey age around 1month ++ always open its mouth like shouting loud but no sound is comingwhen it do this the neck extend like reaching something .. and frequently doing this before and after meal. Rest of the ...

Training a Grey

what is a good way to train an african grey, I don't want to go the rout of using food/treats to get him to do what I want ...

what bird to get

Hello,what kind of bird will get along with an African grey parrot Without fighting? Can a green parrot get along with an African grey parrot? Thanks in advance for answering ...

Plucking Grey

My 30 year old female CAG feather plucks. Vet has no suggestions but worse she screeches for attention and hates the fact our grandkids moved in during the pandemic ...
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