African grey parrots can do it all: they make great pets, mimick human speech, and with the right training, can understand hundreds of words and phrases. Some say that the African grey parrot was kept as a pet for thousands of years—there are records of these birds as household pets in biblical times.
This parrot is characterized by its grey feathers and an uncanny talent for accurately mimicking words and phrases. It can also understand human speech, which has helped to catapult this bird to stardom in research circles and the pet trade.