Thanks so much for posting this, alicat!  I love birds and am constantly amazed by their intelligence.  Parrots are especially smart and show rational thinking beyond mere training and guessing.

One especially interesting African Grey was Alex, who sadly is no longer with us.  This bird not only learned language but would apply the words in situations that required thinking.  He also demonstrating that he could grasp concepts of size, color etc. and would maintain short conversations with his trainer.

The following is from just one of many articles on Alex:

"Known as one of the most famous African Grey parrots in history, Alex pioneered new avenues in avian intelligence. He possessed more than 100 vocal labels for different objects, actions, colors and could identify certain objects by their particular material. He could count object sets up to the total number six and was working on seven and eight. Alex exhibited math skills that were considered advanced in animal intelligence, developing his own “zero-like” concept in addition to being able to infer the connection between written numerals, objects sets, and the vocalization of the number. Alex was learning to read the sounds of various letters and had a concept of phonemes, the sounds that make up words.

Alex’s personality was very evident in his everyday life. He was “in charge” of his home and relished ordering “his” humans to perform various tasks for him. He also acted as a coach and cheerleader to his fellow birds, Wart and Griffin, alternately encouraging or admonishing them during their lessons. His favorite toys were cardboard boxes, key chains and corks.

Purchased from a Chicago pet store in June, 1977, at that time he was 12 to 13 months old. Alex came from humble beginnings. Alex’s accomplishments proved that all African Grey parrots have an intelligence far beyond what was previously thought before his decades-long work with Dr. Pepperberg. Sadly, Alex passed away on September 6, 2007, dying of unknown causes. He was 31 years old.

We miss him dearly."

http://www.alexfoundation.org/alex_the_parrot.html

There are also some YouTube videos showing him in action.  There is some controversy over why he died, with some finger pointing at his trainer for overworking him.  Be that as it may, this was one smart bird.

Also, I highly recommend looking into the N'kisi Project regarding another African Grey.  These types of parrots are considered to be the most intelligent of their species.  His owner Aimee had obviously developed an extremely tight knit bond with this remarkable creature.

I've seen shows about N'kisi and cannot deny nor explain how this parrot was able to carry on conversations, ask the proper questions (i.e., the phone rings and if his owner didn't answer it right away, he would ask "Aren't you going to answer the phone?") and perform feats that could only be termed telepathic.  Having had an interesting telepathic experience with one of my deceased dogs, whose bond with me (and me with her) was extremely strong, I have never doubted that if the conditions are right, animals are capable of telepathy.  But it occurs quite rarely so is much harder to study.

Anyway, I watched a test conducted on N'kisi where his owner was in another room, out of sight and hearing, and the usual test of the person looking at an image and the animal (or human) "seeing" this image was performed.  The parrot was astounding.  He was not guessing and got even right responses that it was obvious something was going on.  Also, some "misses" could not be counted as "hits" because they weren't absolute descriptions.  But they showed an understanding of the image.  For instance:

For example, in one image of a car, the driver's head was sticking out of the car window. Just as Aimee noticed this unusual detail, N'kisi said "Uh-oh, careful, you put your head out."

http://www.sheldrake.org/nkisi/

Now, I'm skeptical of Dr. Sheldrake, but in this case, the results were astonishing.

N'kisi's verbal skills have been placed at the level of a 2-3 year old child.  He speaks in sentences that are very appropriate to the situation.  After being shown videos and pictures of Jane Goodal with her chimps (she was coming to see N'kisi), when she walked into the room he said something to the effect that "Where are your chimps?" without any prompting whatsoever.

So IMO, we simply don't either know clearly how to gauge animal intelligence or worse, refuse to acknowledge that it exists.  Dolphins are a perfect example; some researchers feel they approach us in reasoning and logic abilities.  Once one accepts that many other animals can and do possess an intellect, a whole new world of possibillities can be opened for us all.

Sorry to go on at length but parrots are near to my heart, and this post stirred up some memories for me.

Stephen said:

A cousin of mine worked on the Alex Project. I recommend the book Alex And Me by Dr. Pepperberg.

I can see some potential flaws with the N'kisi project, but I'll hold off on comment until I read the actual paper.

I wonder if the charges of abuse levied against Dr. Pepperberg have any validity.  Some claimed she simply pushed Alex too much, thus impacting his health.

He is sorely missed.