Todd traded the wild grey in for a hand-fed baby, but that bird departed for Arizona with his first wife. Ruby was spotted in a pet store that specializes in birds. She was a hand-fed baby, just ready to finish up her weaning process. She seemed to be exceptionally interested in people, so we bought her. Ruby has been a lot of fun to have around.
Greys are the best talkers of the parrots, and extremely intelligent.
Dr. Irene Pepperberg has done research with greys indicating they have the cognitive ability of a human 5 year old. They don't merely mimic speech, to an extent, they understand it. Ruby has a vocabulary of around 100 words, and would certainly learn more if pushed. She entertains us by having her own phone conversations, etc. At the time, Ruby was somewhat nasty to Sharon, and had nipped her a few times.