June 26: Researchers revealed the mystery about, how parrots imitate human speech. Duke University scientist found the reason behind this mystery.

An international team of scientist directed by Duke University researchers have found the mystery about a question why parrots are such good imitators of human speech? Researcher revealed the answer that, parrots have structurally different brain which gives the ability to imitate human speech when compared to other animals.

As per the research details, parrots are one of the few “vocal learners” in the animal kingdom which separates them from other birds. Parrots brains are structured differently than the brains of songbirds and hummingbirds, which also have a capability of vocal learning.

As per research, scientist found that, parrots have coating or outer rings called shells or crores in their brain, which are responsible for vocal learning. These shells are fairly bigger in different types of parrots, these are only reason for an ability to imitate human speech.

The researchers of Denmark and Netherlands issued precious brain tissue for research. Previously only the budgerigar’s brain had been researched to analyse the mechanisms of vocal learning later they considered the brains of eight parrots types including budgerigars, conures, cockatiels, lovebirds, Amazon parrots, a blue and gold macaw, a kea and an African Grey parrot to research about shells.

The researchers observed that all the parrots have relatively large shell structure, which suggest the talking ability of parrots might be nearly 29 million years old. Moreover this research helps the scientist to examine whether the shells give parrots a greater ability to imitate human speech.