Parrots belong to the handful of animal species capable of vocal production learning. They are considered to be open-ended learners with complex and variable vocalizations. It is not known, however, to what extent their repertoires are shared among individuals within a group or between vocally isolated individuals or groups. In study 1, we mapped the repertoire of four captive African gray parrots (Psittacus erithacus) using a combination of three acoustic analyses. In study 2, we compared the repertoire of two female African gray parrots from two different laboratories who had never been in vocal contact with each other or any member of the other parrot’s social group. Results of study 1 showed a relatively large agreement between all three methods used to analyze the vocalizations. Almost three quarters (72.8%) of categories determined by visual-acoustic analysis were confirmed by at least one of the two computer-aided methods used, i.e., by spectrographic cross-correlation and/or a multiparametric statistical method. In study 2, we found a relatively large proportion of calls shared between the repertoires of the two gray parrot subjects. Over half and over a fourth of calls produced by parrots with the smaller and the larger repertoire, respectively, were shared between the two. No previous study identified such a large proportion of intergroup shared calls within this parrot species. It seems that some calls tend to reappear in vocally isolated groups based on inherited predispositions, similarly as has been documented in songbirds.

鹦鹉属于少数能够发声学习的动物。他们被认为是开放性学习者，具有复杂多样的发声能力。但是，在一个小组内的个人之间或在语音上孤立的个人或团体之间，他们的曲目在多大程度上是共享的，这一点尚不清楚。在研究1中，我们绘制了四只圈养的非洲灰鹦鹉（Psittacus erithacus）结合使用三个声学分析。在研究2中，我们比较了来自两个不同实验室的两只雌性非洲灰鹦鹉的曲目，这些鹦鹉从未彼此或与另一只鹦鹉的社会群体的任何成员进行声音接触。研究1的结果表明，用于分析发声的所有三种方法之间的一致性都相对较高。通过视觉声学分析确定的类别中，将近四分之三（72.8％）的类别已通过所使用的两种计算机辅助方法中的至少一种进行了确认，即光谱互相关和/或多参数统计方法。在研究2中，我们发现两个灰鹦鹉对象的曲目之间共享的呼叫比例相对较大。分别具有较小和较大曲目的鹦鹉所发出的呼叫的一半以上和四分之一以上，在两者之间共享。以前没有研究发现这种鹦鹉物种中有如此大的群体间共享电话。似乎有些声音往往会在基于遗传倾向的声音隔离群体中重新出现，类似于鸣禽中所记录的那样。