“He predicted the timing of the beat, and he did this spontaneously without having been trained,” said Patel, whose 2009 findings were similar to those reported by Harvard researchers that same year involving the African grey parrot Alex and his ability to match his movements to the beats of novel songs. They watched as the parrot repeatedly synchronized his steps to the varied tempos.

To test his theory, Patel and a team of researchers filmed Snowball while they alternately slowed down or sped up some of the bird’s favorite dance tracks.

I thought, ‘Is this real? Could this actually be happening?’ Within minutes I’d written Snowball’s owner.” I was staring at the screen and my jaw just hit the floor. “It was unbelievable when I first saw that video,” said Patel, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, who is working on a book about the evolution of music cognition based in part on his cross-species research. To date, 7.3 million people have clicked on the three-and-a-half-minute clip and millions more have watched videos of the bird bouncing and bobbing to chart-toppers by Michael Jackson and the Back Street Boys.īut was he really dancing or just imitating his owner? Or did someone edit in music over his moves to make it look like he could dance? The questions troubled Ani Patel, a Tufts neuroscientist long interested in music cognition who had recently hypothesized that only vocal learners could move in time to a musical beat. The white bird with the yellow-crested head became an Internet sensation in 2009 when videos of him grooving in perfect time to “Another One Bites the Dust” by the British rock band Queen went viral. When you watch in wonder as your bird blinks in your presence, it is an unambiguous indication that it appreciates and trusts you.New research starring YouTube sensation Snowball the dancing cockatoo spotlights the surprising variety and creativity of his moves and suggests that he, and some other vocal-learning animals, may be capable of some of the kind of sophisticated brain function thought to be exclusively human. When a bird dilates its pupils (they get bigger) or contracts them (they get smaller), it can express joy, discontent, anxiety, or even fear. Still, those of birds can transform for many other reasons. The pupils of humans dilate under certain circumstances, such as in response to stimuli from light or darkness. Well, that is also true for your pet bird! They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. But if your bird moves its tail up and down (and vice versa) in a fast movement, this is, most of the time, a sign showing how happy it is to be with you.

This can, however, also indicate that the bird is going to defecate. When a bird wags its tail (much like a dog would), it’s usually because it is happy to have you around. Much like the wings, your bird’s tail movements express emotions. A bird that flaps its wings but does not fly away is indeed a sign of joy. If you see your bird flapping its wings when you approach it, this is an excellent sign that it is happy around you. Yes, a bird’s wings are mainly used for flying, but they can also express feelings.

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