Parakeets
Parrots are unique vocal learners.
Parrots exhibit outsized vocal repertoires, dance to music, mimic heterospecifics, vocalize differently to different individuals, and can even endow learned sounds with meaning. Interestingy, parrots and songbirds evolved distinct vocal learning circuits and capacities. Like humans but unlike songbirds, the parrot cortical vocal system is organized into recurrent feedback loops.
Parrots and songbirds have different vocal systems
Feedforward networks like those in the songbird are good at pattern recognition and production. Meanwhile, recurrent networks (labeled in green in parrot brain schematic) are suited for short-term memory and complex dynamics. Parrot's recurrent neural network architecture may contribute to their vocal and social capabilities.
Using machine learning to study parakeet social behavior
We are implementing joint audio-video analysis to identify how vocalizations coordinate social interactions such as head-bobbing, kissing, food sharing and courtship. In the video below we find that headbobs are precisely coordinated with warble vocalizations.