I had just taken my last bite of Sweet and Sour Chicken in Min Wah, a popular Chinese restaurant in this part of Mexico, when I caught sight of this fellow diner, politely perched on the back of a chair between his two humans.  He sat there without moving for the entire time, watching them enjoy their meals–hopefully of a less avian nature.  I had to stop and talk to the humans on my way out. I neglected to get any names, but did learn that they had all cohabited for 32 years now. I told them of an African Grey I had once encountered as I walked through the local outside flea market in Santa Cruz, CA. He was on the shoulder of a man who wound up walking in front of me now and then most of the way, and off and on, had carried on a conversation that seemed impossible to me, even then. The bird seemed to understand what I said and to answer, as though we were carrying on a real conversation, and sometimes responded to my questions with questions of his own. When I told them this, they seemed unsurprised, as though this were common in the personality of African Greys. My human companion was patiently waiting outside for me to exit, so I garnered about 1/10th of the information I would have liked to have had the answer to, so I did a bit of research afterwards.

“Overall, African Grey parrots are highly intelligent and fascinating birds that are known for their exceptional cognitive abilities and their ability to mimic human speech. Their cognitive abilities have been studied extensively and they have been found to have similar cognitive power as a 4-year-old human child.” (From Dan’s Pet Care.) (From Judy: A study at Harvard found their reasoning ability to surpass that of a 5-year-old child! They live an average of 60 years, with some birds reaching 80 years old. Recently, the oldest known African Grey died at the age of 89.)

The whole dining family.

For Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.