If you are interested in very smart birds, then check out N'kisi, an African Grey parrot with a vocabulary of about 950 words. This is comparable to the best chimps and gorillas that have been taught to communicate with humans. Jane Goodall made a point of going to see N'kisi and having seen a picture of her with a chimp prior to her showing up, N'kisi said to her when he first saw her in person, "got a chimp?"

The story of N'kisi simply blew me away when I first read about him.