Which parrot species became famous for imitating human speech in Alex’s language studies?

The African grey parrot became famous for imitating human speech in Alex’s language studies.

Alex was an African grey parrot studied by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg beginning in 1977. The research examined whether a parrot could use spoken labels meaningfully rather than merely copying sounds. Alex was trained to identify colors, shapes, materials, and quantities, and he became known for producing spoken responses during controlled experiments.

African grey parrots are especially notable for their vocal learning ability. In the wild, they live in social groups and use varied calls to maintain contact, recognize individuals, and coordinate activity. Captive birds can imitate household sounds, but imitation alone does not prove that a bird understands every copied word.

Alex’s work is sometimes summarized as showing that parrots could speak like humans. More precisely, the studies reported that Alex could associate some vocal labels with objects and properties. His documented abilities made the species an important subject in research on animal communication and cognition.