I miss that one pet bird we had growing up who was an imitater. Not really all that good of one, but she certainly made an effort.
There was a period there in my life, about a year and a half, where I really really dove into the Asterisk PBX and VoIP in general. I was using a speaker phone and making thousands of calls.
This gave the bird a lot of training data, and she started imitating all the various phone signals.
She also learned to associate this with me visually, so her phone signaling would only occur when I was in visual range.
@adam So cool! the best I've ever heard is the lyre bird.
You'll think this is fake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ
Attenborough: the amazing Lyre Bird sings like a chainsaw! Now in high quality | BBC Earth

The world is an amazing place full of stories, beauty and natural wonder. Jump in to BBC Earth's YouTube channel and meet your planet.You'll find 50 years wo...

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@adam I find it quite disturbing hearing a bird imitating the sounds of its own habitat being destroyed LOL
@VE3RWJ Yeah, there are certainly some amazingly imitative birdies out there. Mine was really only good at cadence and timing. Its pitch and whistle were not accurate. But it was still a silly birdy, LOL.
@VE3RWJ @adam Hehehe lololol! That's pretty impressive. In my time briefly living in California, there was a bird there that would immitate car alarms, like that bird did. Pretty cool sounding, but annoying early in the morning.
@mcourcel @adam Thankfully, Youtube is full of swearing parrot videos. Mostly funny, but some give you an idea of the environment they're exposed to ... Would a parrot be a credible witness in court in a spousal abuse case I wonder?
@VE3RWJ @adam I knew someone who had a parrot that would mimic the microwave beeps and the really loud fire alarm chirps. He was a really annoying parrot.