Researchers at Loro Parque Fundación in Tenerife have discovered that blue-throated macaws can mimic intransitive actions without a purpose. This is the first study to directly test for animal mimicry of intransitive actions.
In the study, led by zoologist Esha Haldar, two neighboring macaws were asked to perform different intransitive actions. The results showed that individual birds more likely performed the same action as their neighbor, regardless of what they had been asked to do. This suggests that macaws may possess mirror neurons, which are responsible for automatic imitation in humans.
The study used a stimulus-response-compatibility test to measure the response time and accuracy with which the macaws mimicked the intransitive movements. The findings indicate that blue-throated macaws can mimic intransitive actions automatically, without any apparent purpose or motivation. This ability is unique among non-human animals, with only three previous studies showing similar capabilities, all of which focused on parrot species.
The discovery highlights the complex social behavior of blue-throated macaws and suggests that their large brains relative to body size may enable them to mimic intransitive actions.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/02/parrots-can-imitate-meaningless-behavior-almost-as-well-as-humans