When people feel bored, we can meet friends online through phone or computer screens. In the new study, scientists asked parrots the same question and they discovered that these cunning birds love to video call their loved ones.

Researchers confirm that through the act of video chatting with each other, domesticated parrots can have positive experiences, such as learning new skills. “ She was much more active during the call ,” a parrot owner confirmed to scientists from Northeastern University.

This idea of guiding scientific research is not accidental. In the wild, parrots often live in flocks, but when domesticated and kept at home as pets, these creatures often have to be alone. Living alone and away from the flock, parrots may suffer from some psychological symptoms or even engage in self-harming behaviors such as using their beak to pull out feathers.

Lonely parrots are unhappy parrots, which is why researchers sought to connect about 20 million parrots across America. They recruited volunteers to participate in the study from Parrot Kindergarten, an online parrot training program for parrot owners and their pets.

During the first two weeks of the study, parrot owners will teach their pets to ring a bell, then use their beak to select another parrot on a touch screen to make the call. During this time, the parrots participating in the study made a total of 212 video calls under the close supervision of their owners. Each call only lasts a maximum of 5 minutes, the parrot owner can directly end the call early if they see that the pet is no longer interested in the tablet screen. Out of a total of 18 participating parrots, only 15 individuals were patient enough to continue to the next round.

Once the parrots participating in the experiment get used to video calling, phase two of the study will begin. This is when the 15 parrots can freely call and also have the right to choose who they will talk to. Over the next two months, the 15 parrots made a total of 147 calls to other birds, giving scientists more than 1,000 hours of data to analyze.

First, they discovered that the parrots made the most of the opportunity to vocalize and often talked to each other during the five minutes they were given. According to researchers, parrots seem to understand that they are communicating directly with another parrot rather than watching a video. Some parrots learn new skills from their “video calling friends” or learn to make new sounds.

“ I was surprised at the number of different behaviors they performed ,” study co-author Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas – an expert in animal-computer interaction at the University of Glasgow – told The Guardian. in an interview. “ Some parrots sing, some play, some even want to show other parrots their toys .”

The parrots became close friends through the screen, and scientists assessed the level of closeness through the frequency of phone calls between two individual parrots. The parrots that call the most are also the ones that are called the most, which is somewhat similar to how humans communicate in society.

The experiment also brought humans and parrots closer together. According to reviews, some parrots show interest when they see their parrot owners making video calls.

While video calls cannot replace social interaction, they can still be a timely option to help bring people or parrots closer together. However, scientists warn that this study should not be a basis for every pet owner to immediately call their friends: the parrot owners who participated in the study were trained methodical and with plenty of time. While taking care of the pet, they always monitor whether the parrot shows signs of fear, anger or discomfort to stop the conversation immediately.

The scientific report points out many valuable lessons, such as the fact that technology is becoming a bridge not only between humans and humans, but can also connect animals with animals and even animals with humans. People. Technology has been creeping into every aspect of life, and this is a ripe time for researchers to study the positive impacts of technology on life, of humans in particular and living creatures. living. Generally speaking.

Refer to Smithsonian Mag