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The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.
The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.
He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do.
N'kisi's remarkable abilities feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine.
N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.
Update: A comment below pointed out something I apologize for not noting myself. This story is from 2004. Further, this particular piece leaves out some of the more far-fetched parts of N'kisi the parrot's story, such as that the tests involved were to test claims that the bird is/was psychic (something I highly doubt). While testing and research in animal intelligence is an ongoing and interesting field, this does not appear to be anything new nor of serious scientific value.
