Cockatoo boogies to the Backstreet Boys beat

Two studies recently published in the ‘Current Biology’ journal suggest that some birds have a remarkable talent for dancing. While it had been previously thought that only humans had the ability to get down and groove. Video footage reveals that some parrots have a near-perfect sense of rhythm; swaying their bodies, bobbing their heads and tapping their feet in time to a beat, in a display which puts many humans to shame. Snowball, a sulphur-crested cockatoo, came to the researchers’ attention after YouTube footage suggested he might have a certain prowess for dance – especially when listening to his favourite dance number – Everybody by the Backstreet Boys.
[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeC8rMjp8Mc image=images/dancing-parrot.jpg /]

Dr Aniruddh Patel, from The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, said: “We found out that the previous owner usually listened to easy listening music, but he did have this one album, and he noticed Snowball bobbing his head to the Backstreet Boys.”

To test Snowball’s skill, the scientists filmed him as they played his favourite song at various tempos.

Dr Patel said “We analysed these videos frame by frame, and we found he did synchronise – he did slow down and speed up in time with the music…it was really surprising that he had this flexibility.”

Another group, led by Adena Schachner, from Harvard University, also looked at Snowball, as well as another bird, Alex, an African grey parrot

Dr Schachner said: “We brought some novel music that we knew Alex had never heard before – so there was no way he had been trained to dance to this music.

“We set up the camera and hit play, and we were shocked to see that Alex started dancing to the beat. He started to bob his head up and down.”