Alex was the African grey parrot studied for communicating with English words and concepts.
Psychologist Irene Pepperberg worked with Alex from 1977 until the parrot’s death in 2007. Through structured training, Alex learned to label objects, colors, shapes, and materials, and he could respond to questions about them.
Alex’s abilities were important because the research examined whether a parrot could use vocal labels meaningfully rather than merely copy sounds. He was reported to understand concepts such as same and different, although scientists continue to debate how closely animal communication resembles human language.
Alex is sometimes mistakenly described as speaking conversational English like a person. His trained responses were more limited, but they demonstrated unusually flexible communication for a nonhuman animal.