Parrots can pick up a lot of language and it's one of the many reasons they're such incredible birds.

But sometimes, their ability to repeat words and phrases ends up backfiring.

A parrot sanctuary in England recently dealt with that when five of its African grey parrots developed some rather colorful language.

Photo: Pixabay/wasi1370

The birds, which were living at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Centre, kept encouraging each other to swear openly in front of visitors and it got so bad that the zoo was forced to remove them from the public's eye!

According to AP News, the zoo's chief executive, Steve Nichols, said, "We are quite used to parrots swearing, but we've never had five at the same time. Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it."

Nichols revealed to BBC News that guests' reactions to the swearing parrots actually encourages their behavior. He said, they "swear to trigger reaction or a response," which they get when people laugh or act shocked.

The birds in question, Billy, Eric, Tyson, Jade, and Elsie, were split into two different colonies, away from public ears. The hope is that the birds will pick up more appropriate vocabulary with so many other parrots around, but there is a slight chance it could backfire.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

"I'm hoping they learn different words within colonies - but if they teach the others bad language and I end up with 250 swearing birds, I don't know what we'll do," Nichols said, according to BBC News.

Hopefully the birds tone it down a bit so they can be reintroduced to the public!