How do wild parrots use adaptive vocalization?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

My husband and I were musing the other day about the apparent fact that Scooter's repetoire of sounds seems to be almost entirely learned -- only his screech and maybe one or two high-excitement sounds seem like natural conure calls. Since these guys pick up new sounds so easily and appear to be "wired" to use sounds for purposes of communication -- are any of the sounds completely instinctual? If not, it seems that a hand-raised parrot would not learn any of its "native language", if there even is such a thing.

What does this ability/proclivity do for a bird or flock in the wild? Does each flock (or family) develop distinct sounds so they can distinguish themselves from other groups? Do they learn sounds from other birds and use them? Do they use sounds to disguise themselves from predators? Since it is such a strong trait in parrots -- not just commincation by vocalization, but the ability to learn and use a wide variety of sounds -- there must be some compelling reason for it.

Does anyone know, or am I doomed to a new midlife career as an ornithologist?

[pchela]

I can tell you having been around many birds that each species does have its own unique sounds. African Greys have some noises they make naturally that I've never heard from another bird. But they also all pick up other birds calls so it becomes a jumbled mess that is hard to distinguish between. Some of Scooter's calls are certainly conure calls that you would hear if you had the opportunity to observe a group of green cheeks.

I wonder what the point of mimicry is in parrots.

[Michael]

I know many song birds are not born knowing their species song but rather learn it during their young age. They remember it for the remainder of their adolescence without ever uttering it until after reaching maturity. They will recall it with precision and use it the rest of their life. However, individual flocks or regions of those birds will have varying "dialects" much like people do. There are other types of birds that do have it innate. However, there seems to be a pretty strong correlation between complexity of song and whether it's learned or not. The more complex the songs/calls, the more likely they were learned.

I'm not sure how that applies to parrots. But the reason parrots imitate other birds is cause they are little bastards in the wild. They steal other native bird's territories and use their calls to keep them out of those territories. When they vocalize to potential mates and exercise their vocabulary, that's to show off how many kinds of birds they can scare away when it comes down to business.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Yeah, but I'm wondering the same thing as pchela. Guess no one knows?