Pet parrots were taught to video call each other — and they loved it

Wild parrots tend to fly in flocks, but when kept as single pets, they may become lonely and bored Over 20 million parrots are kept as pets in American households, and a study wanted to see if these social birds would enjoy video calling each other just like humans. The Birds of a Feather study recruited more than a dozen parrot owners and their birds, to see if parrot loneliness, a real danger to the birds’ mental health, could be improved through access to video calling. It’s no word of a lie to say that platforms like Zoom, Skype, and Facetime saved lives during the strict lockdowns during COVID-19, but humans aren’t the only creatures capable of utilizing and benefiting from video calls to friends. The study, organized by Northwestern University in collaboration with scientists from MIT and the University of Glasgow, taught the parrots to initiate video calls with other parrots by instructing them to ring a bell, and then touch the picture of another parrot on a tablet screen…