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With phrases like, what a bird brain or that's for the birds, the English language doesn't offer much respect to avian species.

But for decades, researchers have known that some birds are more intelligent than they're usually given credit for. From parrots that can communicate with words

to crows that use tools, psychologists and other researchers have found that birds can be as

smart as primates or even in some cases human children. Today we're going to talk

to one of the world's leading experts on bird cognition and communication about how birds think,

the extent of their intelligence, what they can do that might surprise you, and what they can

teach us about intelligence in general. Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the

American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life.

I'm Kim Mills. My guest today is Dr. Irene Pepperberg, an adjunct research professor at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts.

She spent nearly five decades working with gray parrots, training them to communicate in English and studying their intelligence.

Her research has found that great parrots are in some areas as intelligent as five or six-year-old children. Her most famous work was with

a parrot named Alex, who died in 2007. Today she runs the Alex Foundation, which supports her

continuing research. She's also held many academic appointments, including at Harvard University,

Brandeis University, and MIT's Media Lab.

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