A singing parrot at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park has become an overnight sensation by serenading visitors with hit songs by the likes of singers Beyoncé, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga.
Already a fan favorite among the locals of Friskney, England, 9-year-old Yellow-crowned Amazon parrot, Chico, made waves worldwide when a clip of the bird belting out Beyoncé’s “If I Were A Boy” went viral. In the clip uploaded to social media, the parrot can be seen delivering a near-perfect rendition of the first few lines of the superstar’s 2008 hit to a crowd of awestruck visitors.
As it turns out, Chico has a number of other tunes up his sleeve (er, wing), including “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga, “Firework” by Katy Perry, and “You Drive Me Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley, according to his previous owner.
“After more than 25 years working with these amazing birds, they still never cease to amaze me,” said Lincolnshire Wildlife Park CEO Steve Nichols.“Who’d have ever thought that a parrot would cause social distancing problems due to being so popular.”
Yellow-crowned parrots are among the few birds in existence able to uncannily imitate and deliver human speech, and even contextualize it to an extent. Since Chico went viral, the park’s Facebook page has been swarmed by comments showing love to Chico and his bewildering talent, with fans around the world even making requests for what songs they want to hear next from the parrot.
“Please, we need to see and hear more from Chico!!!” one person wrote on Facebook.
“Sounds better than Beyoncé,” read another.
The attention has been so widespread that the park even created an instagram page (@chicoparrot) for the parrot so fans can have access to all the Chico-related content their hearts desire.