"So, when you come to Perth the unusual silence you won't hear is the absence of sparrows twittering. It's what we notice most when visiting everywhere else in the world! With sparrows in their hedges, the older inner suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne sound very English to me."
You were in a more placid suburb of Melbourne than the one I inhabited (Kew, somewhat older, kind of inner). A flock of cockatoos that took up residence in a nearby park would sometimes set up such a racket I could hardly hear myself think.
The business of birds using words is one of major interest for me. I've seen birds in pet stores that could obviously associate a noise with an activity. One snapped a rubber band on the wrist of the human that was holding it and shrieked "ouch!". My budgie would beep whenever I approached the microwave. But once she landed on my shoulder and made a noise like running water so many times I went into the kitchen and turned on the faucet, whereupon she ran down my arm and started bathing. Honest to God, I think she was telling me she wanted to take a bath. I'd given her baths like that before but she'd never made the noise first. This seems like more than imitation to me, rather using sound to provoke a response.
