New research has led to birds making new friends through video calls.
Researchers at Northeastern University, MIT and the University of Glasgow wanted to see if parrots could use technology to communicate. Through their work, they were able to help teach a group of parrots how to video-call one another using Facebook Messenger.
The same researchers recently discussed their findings in conversations with 7NEWS.
“We are increasingly having more and more smart technology, if you want to call it this, in our homes,” said Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas of the University of Glasgow. “And these are sort of seeping into the animals that we share our homes with’s lives.”
In the study, the parrots would first ring a bell to request a call. Their caretakers would present them with a tablet featuring pictures of parrot friends who were available to select. The parrots could then use their beak to interact with the screen and “talk” to another bird.
Researchers said they observed a number of factors and found natural behavior in virtual encounters.
“What the other bird would do, they would do, singing back and forth,” said Jennifer Cunha of Northeastern University. “So, there were a lot of natural behaviors we saw between the two birds, even though there was a screen between them.”
Researchers said the parrots seemed to understand that a real bird was on the other end of the line, adding that many of the pets made friends that they would repeatedly select for calls.
After this work, researchers said their study is just the next step toward creating more ways for pets to communicate.
“We are working on not only extending to other species, but also creating technologies that are specifically adapted to those species,” said Rebecca Kleinberger of Northeastern.
The study’s full paper, “Birds of a Feather Video-Flock Together: Design and Evaluation of an Agency-Based Parrot-to-Parrot Video-Calling System for Interspecies Ethical Enrichment,” can be found here.