Pet parrot begins mimicking ospreys
“We have had the website on so much Sailor has started to mimic the pleading cry Aila makes."
A pet parrot has begun to mimic the call of an osprey after her owners started watching online footage of a nest in the Scottish Highlands.
Sailor, a 24-year-old African grey parrot, lives in Yorkshire with her owners Stuart and Sue Brannen, who became hooked on live footage of a pair of ospreys, Aila and Louis.
The nest is at Loch Arkaig Forest in Lochaber, which was recently purchased by the Woodland Trust Scotland, in partnership with Arkaig Community Forest. The nest camera is solar powered and will capture live footage throughout the summer.
Retired merchant seaman Stuart Brannen, 70, said: “We have had the website on so much Sailor has started to mimic the pleading cry Aila makes when she wants Louis to feed her. It is remarkable! If you are in the other room you can’t tell if it is the osprey or the parrot making the noise.”
George Anderson of Woodland Trust Scotland added: “It seems our nest cam has brought a real call of the wild into people’s homes. Aside from Sailor we have heard there is a budgie somewhere which also thinks it’s an osprey now!”
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
