Captive parrots seeking companionship through video chats

Lonely pet parrots have jumped into the friendship bandwagon as per surveys!

An experiment was conducted on 18 pet parrots in bid to check whether video calls would bring out their extrovert side.

Lead researcher Jennifer Cunha of Northeastern University claimed, "they have high mental needs that aren't always catered to very well in companion situations."

On the other hand, Glasgow university's Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas said, "A very high percentage of them have diseases which can be transferred when in-person interaction takes place."

The two eventually then gathered to work with the main author Rébecca Kleinberger to note if parrots really do open up through intensive video calls.

The birds were provided tablets and one or two images of fellow parrots used to appear on it , which helped the researchers to decide how much time parrots desired to spend on calls, engagement and agency was necessary.

Cunha explained, "So mirroring behaviors where they might move in the same kind of way, dancing, singing together. They really seem to, as one owner said, come alive during the calls."