This is just an incredible story, and so amazing ! Apparently, parrots, cockatoos, and other talking birds are teaching their wild counterparts to talk.
Sometimes a bird escapes, and flies out of a door or window , never to be seen again.
Other times, it is because the owner simply took the bird out in the wild and released it.
Either way, these domesticated birds, who have learned to talk, are now teaching the wild birds to mimic phrases that they have learned to say.
People have called police because they could hear voices out in the back yard, but couldn't see anyone; only to discover that it was wild parrots out there calling things like "I'm a pretty boy" back and forth to each other.
This reminds me of the story of a chimpanzee who was released back into the wild, and he was teaching sign language to the wild chimps.
It can happen when one bird can already speak a human language.
If none of the birds can speak in the first place, usually it requires to keep only a single bird in order to train it to talk. In order to teach them to speak our language, to get their attention is the first step. With multiple birds in the same captivity, it is hard to get their attention over to you when they already have companions of the same species. I guess once one or more birds have already learned to talk, you can let them to be your assistant coach for the rest of the birds.
I don't have a parrot, but a cockatiel that I inherited from a lady at work who said she'd had the bird from someone else, and I can tell, even tho I've never owned a bird like this, that the bird has been neglected and abused.
Anyway, I put him in a completely new, clean clean clean bigger cage, and have watched him become beautiful. He still doesn't trust me even after months. Hopefully, there will come a time that he won't shiver and shake when I approach the cage or hiss and strike out at me when I clean the cage.
The whistles that he knows, seems to be the only way he knows to communicate, and the family and I are trying to teach him a different, more complicated whistle. I'm sure he doesn't know the difference between whistling and language, so we're not concerned if he never talks. However, we're thrilled when his "chirping" and whistling changes whenever another family member enters the room.
I will continue to search videos that could train me to train him. Since I work so much, I have to rely on the family members who are home all the time to keep him entertained and engaged....
Birds are just so intelligent, and it really makes sense to me that they would learn from each other. It seems to be how many species learn things, like the old saying "onkey see, monkey do". If you have one dig that digs under the fence and escapes, then soon any other dogs that you have will also learn to dig under the fence to get out.
Our pets also watch us and imitate what they see us doing. We have several little stepping stones (actually concrete block squares) in the front yard to walk on instead of walking on the grass or dirt, especially when it is wet out.
I noticed that when I let Chipper out in the front yard, he carefully hops from one stepping stone to the next one, just like he has watched me to do. Tootsie never pays any ttention to that kind of thing, and she just runs out the door and acros the yard to see if there are any squirrels to chase; but Chipper seems to watch everything that I do.
I've heard birds like parrots are about as intelligent as a 4-5 year old child. It doesn't surprise me they would be able to teach other birds to make human sounds, it's just hilarious that they are doing so. I would have thought an escaped bird would want to revert to more wild behavior based on instinct, but I guess if they were raised with humans they would think it was normal. If I found a talking bird in my back yard I would probably want to take it in and see if it belonged to anyone though. It would be hard to know if the talking bird was a lost pet or a bird that learned from a list pet.
I have never heard parrots talk. I look forward to the opportunity to do so. I think their brain is highly developed with regard to speech areas and associated zones with regard to cognitive memory. It also proves a point with regard to the fact that animals and humans are in one way or another related. For some reason, these birds have chosen to mimic humans and not other birds or animals is a rallying all for reciprocity on the part of humans to make their lives and habitats more tolerable and sustainable.
I've always wanted to have a parrot but they are very expensive where I'm from. An African Grey parrot seems to have a longer lifespan than dogs and can live up to fifty years in captivity. It would be nice to have one but I do wonder if they can handle the tropical climate that we have. It would be nice to be able to teach one to talk and maybe in Tagalog too. It would be hilarious!
My mom's parrot never talked but he could whistle and he would pick up different tunes, although sometimes he'd get them confused a bit. I taught him to whistle, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and he started whistling that but only memorized the first seven notes. I could never get him past that part of the song. Then I taught him, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and before I knew it he was whistling seven notes of "Mary" and the first six or seven notes of "Twinkle". I called it his Mary Had a Little Star song. He would sit in his cage and whistle to the other birds and they would listen intently and sometimes squawk, but he could never really teach them to whistle along. I also once taught a wild mockingbird to whistle a tune. I heard several different bird songs all coming from the same tree, so I figured it was a Mockingbird. I started to whistle a made-up tune just to see what he would do. He stopped whistling for the duration of my song and then when I stopped, he started up again. He was running through his song-bank of bird tunes, doing every bird he'd ever heard and finally, he ran through his repertoire and then tacked my song on the end of his concert. He started over again and I danced a little jig. I knew that now there was at least one mockingbird out there who knew a human tune. He kept whistling and each time he got to the end, he'd put my song on there. It was the coolest thing ever. I can't help but wonder how many other Mockingbirds now sing my little tune because they heard it from that one bird.
With multiple birds in the same captivity, it is hard to get their attention over to you when they already have companions of the same species. I guess once one or more birds have already learned to talk, you can let them to be your assistant coach for the rest of the birds. 
