parrots, androids and aliens

I've been thinking recently that it's a shame there aren't any more intelligent avian species than there are. Apparently you can find some species of parrots with intellect as high as that of a two- or three-year-old, which isn't bad, but is still kind of limited. I wonder how avian thought paths and intelligences compare with mammilian. They're next down on the evolutionary scale from mammals, in fact practically equal with the large part of mammals. So their development is in some ways parallel to ours, but still distinct. I wonder how much?

The reason I've been thinking of this is mostly because if we could interact with, study and comprehend a parallel yet different consciousness, we might have a new angle to address the issues of artificial or extra-terrestrial intelligences when they come up. Which, the geek in me believes, will happen sooner or later...