How one bird-mum’s love and healing created a viral parrot school—where feathery students beg for homework

How was the temperature last night, she asks.

Warm. I feel warm.

What do you want to feel?

Warm. I want to feel warm.

You’re doing great, comes the comforting reply.

The bird sits on her perch, with a tablet, pointing to the right answers. Such is the little exchanges between Florida-based Jennifer Taylor- O’ Connor, a professor, lawyer and scientist, and her little cockatoo, Isabelle. She plays with the bird lightly, but it’s the unconditional love that shines in her eyes that shines through her film, The Parrot Kindergarten. It’s almost fascinating to watch them together: It’s two friends sharing a moment.

When we reached out to O’ Connor after seeing her Instagram, TikTok videos and her film, we could hear the love that doesn’t get dimmed through telephonic conversations, despite the distance between Florida and UAE.  Every day is a new story, and a new flight into endless possibilities. The birds aren’t just her children: She has taught and trained them well in communication, defying the cynicism and skepticism around the demeaning ‘bird-brain’ label. In fact, her birds passed specific university-curated tests.

So, how did this journey to communicate with parrots begin? It began with a journey of healing.

There was devastating loss on both sides. Taylor-O-Connor had just miscarried. With a sense of raw grief, she got herself, a cockatoo named Ellie. But Ellie was bitter and angry. She had lost her family, and was now in a new, unfamiliar environment. As Taylor O-Connor explains, every adoption is rooted in pain and trauma. There is a sense of loss.

And it was clear that Ellie was traumatised. “That hurt me,” adds Taylor O-Connor. Ellie didn’t like her new mother, though she liked everyone else who came home. Ellie was destructive and upset, destroying whatever she could in sight.

And yet, even in the chaos, a pattern began to emerge, one that pointed to a possible way forward.

Learning.

Gradually, she brought a little sense of learning and communication into Ellie’s life. “I just kept wondering, how I could make her life better. And I found that whenever she learnt something, she calmed down.” General tricks didn’t help, as Ellie would just clamp down and refuse. She needed a challenge; she wanted to keep learning something else.

As Taylor-O'Connor had experience with teaching, she started wondering if she could teach Ellie how to read. The internet was sceptical: They didn’t believe it was possible. But O’ Connor was filled with a new energy. She would teach Ellie.

One evening, after Ellie had a bout of destruction, O’Connor used little block letters. She plucked off ‘A’ from the fridge’ and brought it next to the apple. And next few days, she started learning the ABCs. In the film, this is evident as Ellie chooses colours, words and gets gentle encouragement from O’ Connor. A speech board interface was designed: There were icons for each word, from temperature, weather, beverages to feelings. The way she teaches them: She asks, ‘what is this’ and the bird clicks on the icon, and they slowly form associations. The thought process behind it: What are the words that would bring their world to life? What makes them happy? One of the learnings, as she explains in the film, O’Connor says that she wonders how many times have they needed something that is just a few feet away, and they couldn’t put in words?

How many times did Ellie need an apple, but she couldn’t say it?

And so, a friendship was forged as they grew to understand each other. Ellie doesn’t leave her side at all.

That bond didn’t stop at words. It extended to feelings, even physical pain.

And this is what O’ Connor has discovered with her birds. For instance, her cockatoo Isabelle, had to suffer an amputation. “She kept telling us about her sickness. She said it 16 times,” recalls O'Connor. The vet said she was fine, but Isabelle knew she wasn’t and would keep reiterating to O’Connor over the course of eighteen months about how she felt.

And now each bird, gives their body report. “Ellie takes it very seriously, to give a thorough update about her body report,” explains O’ Connor.

At Jennifer Taylor O’Connor’s home, the birds have a space of their own—a place where they’re free to play, explore, and just be birds. They spend hours outdoors in an environment designed to enrich and entertain them. “They really look out for each other,” she says with a smile. “And they’re all so different—with their own quirks, personalities, and moods.”

Some are sweet. Others are bossy. All of them are funny.

Take Isabelle, for example. If she doesn’t get her bedtime tablet game, she puts on a full-blown melodramatic show.

And now, Taylor O'Connor has a little Parrot Kindergarten, where people come with their birds and get them trained to read and communicate. It’s an online educational platform delivers bite-sized, five-minute lessons designed to help parrot owners connect with their birds in fun ways.

These breakthroughs in bird learning have also been recognized by the scientific community, published in academic journals, and shared at conferences. O’Connor, a real estate lawyer by profession, also holds a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience and has co-authored seven research papers alongside scientists from institutions like Northeastern University, MIT, the University of Miami, and the University of Glasgow.

With weekly coaching calls and around 200 paying clients, O’Connor has built a loyal community, boosted by hundreds of thousands of fans on TikTok and Instagram. At the heart of Parrot Kindergarten is a simple but powerful belief: Parrots are happiest, when their minds are stimulated. Challenging them intellectually not only deepens their bond with humans but also improves their overall wellbeing. And considering some parrots live nearly as long as people, that bond is a lifelong commitment.