President Andrew Jackson owned a pet African grey parrot named Poll who had to be removed from Jackson's funeral in 1845 because she wouldn't stop swearing.

A Mimic in a Room of Mourners

Poll’s behavior was not a deliberate insult to Andrew Jackson or the people gathered to mourn him. African grey parrots are highly capable vocal mimics: they can repeat sounds and words they hear, including language that humans consider inappropriate. Repetition can be reinforced by attention or by the reactions a phrase gets, though that does not mean a bird understands profanity as a person does.

A parrot in a household also hears speech in ordinary, unguarded moments—not only the polite language its owners might use in public. If Poll had picked up taboo words at home, the crowd and commotion around a funeral offered no reason she would suddenly stop repeating them.

When Private Speech Went Public

The episode survives through the account of the Rev. William Menefee, who recorded that Poll’s outbursts disrupted the solemn gathering. Removing the bird was the practical answer: a parrot cannot be expected to recognize a funeral as a setting with special rules.

That small disruption reveals an awkward feature of keeping a talking bird. Its talent is imitation, not judgment. Words learned in one setting can reappear in another, at precisely the moment their owners most wish they would not.