What do humans and monk parakeets have in common? They speak different languages depending on where they were born and raised. “Similar to humans, monk parakeets communicate differently in Verona than in Brussels,” says Simeon Smeele, biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology in Konstanz, who just found this out and in the science journal Behavioral Ecology published.
The language talent of the green parrots, which are around 30 centimeters tall, has been known for a long time: they are one of the few animals that are able to learn human language. But Smeele and his team were surprised that the birds also communicated with each other in different languages. “Monk parakeets in Brussels, for example, have a completely different contact call than animals living in other cities.” The Brussels version is shorter and somehow shriller, more like an alarm call.
But no matter what it sounds like, the meaning of the contact call is the same in all cities: “I’m here, where are you?” All monk parakeets don’t like to be alone and use it when they want to know where everyone else is. As soon as a conspecific answers, they fly off to look for it and join it.
For their study, the scientists recorded the chirping of monk parakeets in eight different European cities – including Athens, Barcelona, Brussels and Verona – and compared them with each other. In their opinion, the different “languages” arose because animals copied the calls of other animals, but made small mistakes in the process. Over time, the differences gradually accumulated until the chirping sound was characteristic of each city.
In some countries the birds have become a pest
Monk parakeets originally come from South America. They have only been around in Europe for a few decades. “They are descendants of parrots from zoos or private households that escaped or were released at some point,” says Smeele. In some countries, for example in Spain, they have multiplied so much that they have become a plague.
In particular, the huge communal nests that the animals build in the middle of big cities can cause problems: “A nest can weigh several hundred kilograms,” says Smeele. If it falls, whatever is underneath it will be crushed. More than a hundred birds live together in large nests, but each pair has its own separate apartment.
Monk parakeets are not the only exotic birds that thrive in Europe. In Germany alone there are now around ten different free-living parrot species. They have settled in several cities, especially along the Rhine. Like monk parakeets, all of these birds are descendants of escaped zoo or domestic animals. The most common in Germany are ring-necked parakeets, which live in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Heidelberg, among other places. Yellow-headed Amazons feel at home in Stuttgart. The talkative monk parakeets, on the other hand, are still rather rare in Germany.