From Matthew Anderson:

Re: Bird can “read” human gaze (April 2): I have been a parrot owner for over 20 years and I can confirm the findings of the study mentioned in the article. Parrots are very visually orientated and in that respect, not having arms and hands with fingers to point with, they point with their gaze instead. When asked “what do you want?” or “where do you want to go?” they will use their gaze to direct me to whatever they want or want to go to. he also have a fair grasp and understanding of the English language, (probably a lot more than I think they do). When I ask them rudimentary questions within their conceptual sphere that have a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer with one shake of the head for ‘yes’ and two shakes for ‘no’ (except for the times they get excited or enthusiastic then it’s three or four shakes meaning ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’). Over all, I believe we ‘Humans’ are a bit too conceded about our ‘superior mental powers’ and don’t give animals half the credit for the intelligence that they do have.