Several families of birds can be trained to ‘talk’, but in reality they are simply mimicking noises without
really understanding what they are saying, although they can be taught to associate a given word or
phrase with a given action, for example saying ‘give us a peanut’ to get a reward. The best talkers are
parrots and mynas, and members of the crow family such as crows, jackdaws and ravens can also learn a
few simple words. They can do this because the are highly intelligent birds and they are excellent mimics
in the wild. Other bird mimics that do not pick up speech are starlings and some of the bowerbirds in
Australia, including on individual that had learned to copy the noise of the logging machines that were
destroying his habitat.