A new study is the first to document vocal dialect differences in the contact calls produced by introduced parrot species across its European range
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A pair of monk parakeets, also known as the monk parrot or Quaker parrot (Myiopsitta monachus). ... [+]
Europe is unusual because it isn’t home to any native parrot species. But despite this, there is a rather large and diverse crowd of parrot species that have established naturalised populations after escaping, or being deliberately released from pet situations. These parrots tend to live in close proximity to people in cities, urban parks, or in suburban gardens.
One particularly widespread naturalised species, the monk parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus, also known as the Quaker parrot or parakeet, has established large populations in several countries in Europe since they were first introduced starting around 50 years ago. Like humans, who mostly dwell in cities, monk parakeets form socially cohesive colonies. These colonies are comprised of breeding pairs occupying their own separate “apartment” nests built of sticks in trees, light poles and other structures that, in time, can reach the size and heft of a small automobile.
Like people, monk parrots have spread across the continent and, like people, they’ve apparently developed regional dialects along the way, according to a team of researchers based at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior and at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
The scientists made this discovery after making and analyzing audio recordings of calls produced by monk parrots living in 39 parks across eight cities in Spain, Belgium, Italy, and Greece (Figure 1).
F I G U R E 1 | Map of study locations. (doi:10.1093/beheco/arad093)
Do these parrots produce calls that differ based on where they live? Do they “speak” in their own regional dialects?
“Just like humans, monk parakeets in Europe have unique ways of communicating based on where they live,” said study co-author, behavioral ecologist Stephen Tyndel, a doctoral student who is studying the underlying processes and mechanisms of communication in both captive and wild parrots at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
To identify their dialects, Mr Tyndel and collaborators used a novel statistical method to analyze and compare the audio recordings of these parrots’ calls made within each city as well as between cities. Perhaps not surprisingly, they found that the study parrots really do sound different in each city.
Parrots are exceptionally skilled at learning and reproducing a wide variety of sounds throughout their lives. They also tend to imitate each other and can thereby develop large and varied vocal repertories that they share with their flock. But because these parrots spread through Europe only recently, Mr Tyndel observed that “monk parakeets are the perfect ‘test tube’ for studying how complex communication evolves in a species other than our own.”
Mr Tyndel and collaborators did find different dialects between each cities. For example, parrots living in Brussels produced contact calls that were especially different from those of other cities.
“We wanted to find out not only if there are different dialects, but at what geographical scale they occur,” Mr Tyndel said. But a closer look at parrots living in the same city did not identify differences in dialects in parrots living in different parks within the same city.
Can a person actually hear these differences? Not really because these dialects differ mainly in frequency modulation structure within each call, “which is super difficult for humans to hear,” replied the study’s co-lead author, Simeon Smeele, who studies social and vocal complexity in parrots as a post-doctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
What purpose might vocal dialects serve?
“We think that dialects could be used to communicate who is part of what nest cluster, like a password,” Dr Smeele explained. In the future, the team plans to further investigate how individuals learn their dialects and whether smaller groups show their own distinct dialects within parks — and this could help researchers better understand the function of dialects.
Wild monk parakeet nest colony comprised of many individual apartments in Mato Grosso, Brazil. ... [+]
The findings were a surprise, Mr Tyndel mentioned.
“This suggests that dialects came about through a passive process — birds copying birds make small errors and therefore cities slowly become different from each other — or that they were different to begin with, and that these differences were maintained over time.”
But dialects could result from a more deliberate process that helps the birds recognize their mates and families, friends and colleagues within, say, shouting distance. For example, in parks, monk parakeets live in nest colonies that are highly clustered. Thus, vocal differences, like slang, may preserve social stability in these smaller units.
“This will add to our understanding of parrot communication,” Mr Tyndel stated, “and provide insights into the ways in which complex communication is linked to the complex social lives of humans and animals.”
“Taken together, this suggests that parrot dialects separated early when birds invaded European cities, but then didn’t significantly change further over this time period.”
Source:
Simeon Q Smeele, Stephen A Tyndel, Lucy M Aplin, and Mary Brooke McElreath (2023). Multilevel Bayesian analysis of monk parakeet contact calls shows dialects between European cities, Behavioral Ecology, arad093 | doi:10.1093/beheco/arad093
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