I agree 100%. I also like to believe that what he said is tripe but, if you research how they live in the wild and are honest about what you find, you'll have to agree with him. They are meant to have a mate chosen by them and not a human they got because the human chose him/her. We love them and take as good a care as we can of them but we can't replace a bird mate no matter how dedicated we are, how much time/money/love we put into it. We are not birds. we can't forage, perch or fly with them, we can't really allopreen, we can't have sex or babies with them, etc. etc. Only another bird can.
And it is true that only birds are the best talkers. It stands to reason.... why would a bird make the effort to learn human language when he can communicate perfectly well in his own language with another bird without making any effort whatsoever? They learn because they need to belong and we are the only ones there. And I've seen it happen the other way in my birdroom. Birds that were only birds which spoke a lot gradually stopped and only say a few things here and there whereas, when they first came, they had huge vocabularies. There are exceptions to every rule but it's pretty much like he says.
I agree. Human imprinted birds are understandably confused when it comes to viewing humans as mates, but that's a relationship that tends to come with a lot of issues... And most human imprinted birds do benefit from having other birds around them, even if they're still confused about their own identity. You can't force someone to have more than one bird, because there is so much that comes with having several parrots that it might not work out very well. But as a general rule, with few exceptions, I don't think parrots should be only birds. Even if they can't interact physically, they still interact vocally and visually.
Of course a bird can be happy even if it's an only bird. Just like us humans can be happy even if we're single, or if we're confined to a wheelchair, etc. But I feel that it should be enough that (many of) our parrots live indoors, probably spend time in a cage, adapting to our lives. We don't have to force them to live without other birds, too
(We only have one Grey in our family, and even though she spends time with the other birds and is very vocally interactive with them, I feel guilty for letting her be the only Grey. The other two doesn't seem to have that same need for socialising. I wonder if it's a Grey thing, because they tend to live in one-species-only flocks?)
That said, there are lots of birds that are good talkers even though they have lots of birdie friends - I think they're clever enough to find it amusing to imitate and get reactions out of people, and to communicate with them
And, most importantly, again, if someone doesn't want another bird and can't cope with another, then forcing them would probably not be in the best interests for their first bird... In some countries it's illegal to keep only one parrot. And that's not such a bad idea, after all.
