can birds see phone screens

Wild parrots tend to fly in flocks, but when kept as single pets, they may become lonely and bored

When humans are feeling lonely, we can call or video chat with friends and family who live far away. But, scientists asked, what about pet parrots? New research suggests that these chatty creatures may also benefit from virtually connecting with their peers.

Domesticated parrots that learned to initiate video chats with other pet parrots had a variety of positive experiences, such as learning new skills, researchers from Northeastern University, the University of Glasgow and MIT report this month in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

“She came alive during the calls,” one pet parent said about their bird, according to a Northeastern University statement.

The idea for this study was not random: In the wild, parrots tend to live in large flocks. But when kept in captivity, such as in people’s homes as pets, these social birds are often on their own. Feeling bored and isolated, they may develop psychological issues and can even resort to self-harming tendencies like plucking out their feathers.

Lonely parrots are unhappy parrots, so researchers set out to find a way for some of the estimated 20 million pet birds living in the United States to connect with each other. They recruited volunteers from Parrot Kindergarten, an online training program for parrot owners and their beloved pets. Lonely Parrots Flock Together with Video-Calling Technology

During the first two weeks of the study, owners taught their birds to ring a bell, then touch an of another pet parrot on a tablet screen to initiate a video call. In this initial phase, the participating birds made 212 video calls while their owners carefully monitored their behavior. Owners terminated calls as soon as the birds stopped paying attention to the screen and capped their duration at five minutes. Though 18 parrots began the experiment, three dropped out.

Once the birds had learned how to initiate video interactions, the second phase of the experiment could begin. In this “open call” period, the 15 participating birds could make calls freely; they also got to choose which bird to dial up. Over the next two months, pet parrots made 147 deliberate video calls to other birds. Their owners took detailed notes about the calls and recorded more than 1,000 hours of video footage that the researchers analyzed.

For starters, they found that the parrots took advantage of the opportunity to call one another, and they typically stayed on the call for the maximum time allowed during the experiment. They also seemed to understand that another live bird was on the other side of the screen, not a recorded bird, researchers say. Some of the parrots learned new skills from their virtual companions, including flying, foraging and how to make new sounds.

“I was quite surprised at the range of different behaviors,” co-author Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, an animal-computer interaction researcher at the University of Glasgow, tells the Guardian’s Hannah Devlin. “Some would sing, some would play around and go upside down, others would want to show another bird their toys.” Two weak, older macaws, for example, became very close and even called out to one another “Hi! Come here! Hello!” from their respective screens.

The birds forged strong friendships, which researchers measured by how frequently they chose to call the same individual. Parrots who initiated the highest number of video calls also received the most calls, which suggests a “reciprocal dynamic similar to human socialization,” per the statement.

The experiment also brought parrots and humans closer together—on both sides of the screen. Some birds were even reported to have developed attachments to the human caretakers of their virtual friends.

Video chatting can’t replace the social interactions that would occur in the wild, but it may be a viable option for improving the lives of parrots that are already in captivity, the researchers note. In addition, it may be beneficial for birds that cannot interact in person. Pet parrots are highly susceptible to a deadly disease called avian ganglioneuritis, which can make it dangerous for human owners to plan in-person parrot playdates.

As for other parrot owners, the researchers caution it might not be wise to suddenly begin launching FaceTime or Zoom chats on behalf of their pets. The study involved experienced parrot handlers who had the time and energy to keep tabs on their birds’ behavior—at the first sign of fear, aggression, disinterest or discomfort, they ended the calls. As the study’s authors note in the statement, “unmediated interactions could lead to fear [or] even violence and property damage.”

“We were really careful about training the birds’ caregivers thoroughly to ensure that they could offer an appropriate level of support to empower their parrots but also help them avoid any negative experiences,” says study co-author Rébecca Kleinberger, a humanics and voice technology researcher at Northeastern University, in a University of Glasgow statement.

Still, the researchers learned an important lesson from the study. If taught how to use video chat technologies to communicate with fellow birds, pet parrots will do so in “very individual and very beautiful ways,” as Hirskyj-Douglas tells the New York Times’ Emily Anthes.

Inside Dr. Pepperberg’s Lab: Virtual Interactions with Our Parrots

Considering that nearly everyone uses apps like FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, and others to communicate with friends and family, I’m frequently questioned about how parrots might handle online communication. As with most questions about parrots, the answers are complicated.

The main problems are with their visual system, which is very different from ours. Not just the obvious ones, like how their eyes are positioned to reduce “binocular overlap” in comparison to humans or the neuroanatomical differences, but also significant differences in their ability to process information presented virtually, such as their ability to see in the ultraviolet light or their very different flicker-fusion rate (FFR, the frequency at which an intermittent stimulus appears to be completely steady to the average observer).

For instance, the FFR most likely contributed to the failure of our attempts to use video to train our parrots (Pepperberg et al. , 1998), despite the fact that Alex, for example, could distinguish between objects shown in a video and their similarities (Routledge These early researches employed cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, which rely on human FFR to produce action that appears “normal.” Parrots’ false facial recognition (FFR) is approximately twice that of humans, so instead of being viewed as an integrated whole, CRT output may be perceived as an interrupted series of flashing s that could divert the bird’s attention and make it harder for it to observe the physical objects that need to be labeled. It may even interfere with the formation of a connection between audio and visual input, which could be one reason why video tutoring didn’t work.

People who live far away from one another can be reached by phone or video chat when they are feeling lonely. However, scientists wondered, what about parrots kept as pets? Recent findings indicate that these talkative birds might gain from interacting digitally with their peers.

“I was quite surprised at the range of different behaviors,” co-author Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, an animal-computer interaction researcher at the University of Glasgow, tells the Guardian’s Hannah Devlin. “Some would sing, some would play around and go upside down, others would want to show another bird their toys.” Two weak, older macaws, for example, became very close and even called out to one another “Hi! Come here! Hello!” from their respective screens.

According to research published this month in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, researchers from Northeastern University, the University of Glasgow, and MIT, domesticated parrots that learned to start video chats with other pet parrots experienced a range of positive outcomes, including learning new skills.

Still, the researchers learned an important lesson from the study. If taught how to use video chat technologies to communicate with fellow birds, pet parrots will do so in “very individual and very beautiful ways,” as Hirskyj-Douglas tells the New York Times’ Emily Anthes.

Strong friendships were formed by the birds, which were gauged by how often they chose to call the same person. According to the statement, parrots that made the most video calls also got the most calls, indicating a “reciprocal dynamic similar to human socialization.”

Parrots See What We Don’t

The colors on both the older CRTs and the more recent liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are calibrated to suit the human trichromatic visual system. But birds are at least tetracromatic, meaning they can see in the ultraviolet, so to them, the world appears completely different. Read a recent paper by Stoddard et al. for an explanation of what is known about their UV vision. (2020). As a result, when people look at something that is physically present, what they see most likely appears very different to them than what they see on a computer screen. That’s not to say they can’t recognize anything at all; in fact, it’s more likely that they will conclude that, “Even though it appears extremely strangely colored, it probably is some kind of human because it has the shape of a human and sounds like a human.” ” Ditto for other items. This could be the reason why certain parrots appear to enjoy watching TV with their owners.

We once used LCD screens to retry the video tutoring study (Pepperberg Even then, they failed to learn from the tapes. The birds only watched pre-recorded tapes, so it’s clear that the humans on the tapes didn’t modify their behavior to fit what the bird was doing at the moment. The color problems could still be the cause, as could the lack of social interaction. Due to their social nature, African greys are likely to pick up other important behavioral patterns in addition to vocalizations through observation and in-person interactions (Todt, 1975). They can pick up vocalizations from humans just as well as from other parrots, but the interactions will probably also need to happen in real time.

Recently, I attempted to model for Athena over Zoom with one of my former students because we were unable to use our live social modeling technique during the COVID-19 outbreak that required social distancing. We reasoned that we could be completely interactive, Athena would be able to recognize her voice and features, flicker-fusion wouldn’t be an issue, and perhaps the strange color would be tolerated. No such luck. While we were modeling, Athena did not pay attention to the screen even though it appeared that she recognized Francesca—at least, she attempted to peck Francesca’s nose on the screen as she would in real life. Alternatively, it’s possible that Athena was tapping on the computer screen because she saw a grey parrot’s reflection there rather than Francesca.

Still, Griffin and Athena appear to be enjoying whatever it is they are seeing on the screens. Leigh Ann, a friend and coworker, brings her two African greys over to the computer when we set up a Zoom meeting, and all four of the birds tap the screen and make different noises. They certainly create a lot of noise, but it’s unclear if they can visually identify one another. Additionally, when I spoke with Leor via Skype, a student who had been gone for a year, both birds gave her the “cold wing” at first to let her know that her departure had been unacceptable. As in real life, they didn’t really want to talk to each other until after a while. Once more, I’m not sure if her voice or her was the focus of their response, but at least they weren’t offended.

In conclusion, feel free to continue if your birds appear to enjoy watching TV or interacting with computer screens. However, don’t assume that their experiences match your own; they might be reacting to sounds they hear, reflections in the screen, or the fact that objects occasionally appear in strange colors!

Pepperberg, I. M. , Naughton, J. R. , & Banta, P. A. (1998). Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) that exhibit allospecific vocal learning: When videotaped instruction fails in specific circumstances Behavioural Processes, 42, 139–158.

Pepperbergm I. M. , & Wilkes, S. R. (2004) Inadequate referential vocal learning by grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) from LCD video Interaction Studies 5, 75–97.

Rutledge, D. , & Pepperberg, I. M. (1988). [Video studies of same/different. ] Unpublished raw data.

Stoddard, M. C. , Eyster, H. N. , Hogan, B. G. , Morris, D. H. , Soucy, E. R. , & Inouye, D. W. (2020). Wild hummingbirds discriminate nonspectral colors. Proceedinds of the National Academy of Sciences, /doi. 10. 1073/pnas. 1919377117.

Todt, D. (1975). Grey parrots acquire social learning of vocal patterns and ways to use them. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 39, 178–188. categories.

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