Field studies of four sympatric parrot species in Costa Rica are revealing several possible functions for the well-known ability of parrots to mimic new sounds throughout life. Despite earlier suggestions that this might facilitate exchanges of environmental information, all data so far suggest that vocal mimicry in the wild is associated with mediation of the fission/fusion of groups of parrots and/or of conflicts between mated pairs. Recent results using array recording and interactive playback will be summarized, and several technical problems created by the mechanisms of parrot vocal signal production discussed. [Research supported by NSF Grant IBN-022927 and by continued encouragement and logistics provided by the staff of the Area Conservacion Guanacaste (Costa Rica).]
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Jack W. Bradbury (2004) studied this question.