"What color am I?"

[George K]

https://mymodernmet.com/alex-the-african-gray-parrot

Alex was taught to recognize a variety of different colors, objects, materials, and actions, and he possessed a vocabulary of over 100 words to identify them with. He knew at least 50 individual objects and could count quantities of up to six. The parrot was even reported to have an understanding of the concept of zero.

Possessing a distinct understanding of the words he used, he could also identify objects despite them being different from ones he had been shown before. For example, if Alex was shown a plastic key that was yellow, he could distinguish it from one that was made of metal by its color and material, while still labeling them both as keys. When presented with an object, he would be asked questions such as What color?, What matter?, or What shape?—and he had a very high rate of accuracy with his responses.

Because the experiments required a large amount of repetition for statistical purposes, Alex would often get bored with the activities. It was then that his cheeky personality would shine through the most. He would frequently try to create variations to the exercises by responding intentionally with incorrect answers or by responding to Dr. Pepperberg’s questions with ones of his own. His ability to understand and pose his own questions was a groundbreaking occurrence in itself, as he was the first (and only) non-human to ever ask a question.

One of Alex’s most impressive moments was when he asked an existential question about his own appearance. He had been presented with a mirror, and—after observing himself for a moment—he asked, “What color?” He then learned the word “gray”—the color of his feathers—after having it taught to him six times.

Link to video

When Pepperberg was at Northwestern, one of my colleagues' wife worked with her. She knew Alex well.