Parrots might be able to talk as distinctly as humans says Study

This one is definitely for all the bird enthusiasts, soon parrots might graduate from being mere mimics with a limited vocabulary to proper talking birds as a new study has found that that parrots and humans use their tongues to craft and shape sound in a similar manner.

The study, which has been published in this month's issue of Current Biology, indicates that both parrots and humans rely on extremely specialized vibrating organs in their throats. The study also found that even tiny changes in the position of a parrot's tongue could lead to big differences in sound.

This is the first direct evidence that parrots are able to use their large tongues to change the acoustic properties of their vocalizations which means that parrots now make many more distinctive sounds than previously believed.

Earlier it was believed that the complexity of parrot communication was because of the syrinx, an organ in their throats but now it has been found that the tongue is involved, just like with human speech.

The researchers studied five monk parakeets, small parrots native to South America. While a speaker swept through a series of tones, from 500 to 11,000 Hz the researchers measured how much the birds' tongue position influenced the outgoing sound.

They found that a change of just a fraction of a millimeter in tongue position could significantly affect the qualities of the emerging sound. The scientists also suggest that there are four acoustic "formants" in parakeet sounds.

Formants are small ranges of frequencies that remain strongly audible as sound travels past the throat, tongue, mouth and nasal cavities. The geometry of these passages deadens some frequencies but leaves others relatively unaffected. What's left distinguishes the character of a sound, in this case, the voice of a parakeet.