Amazing Parrot

A captive African grey parrot named N'kisi has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humor! He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with new ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. Only about 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material. He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.

One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York. When he first met Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?" When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera."

UPDATE:

This page has a link to a "conversation" between N'kisi and his trainer. She is using a musical children's toy with buttons as a training aid.