 Mozart had a pet common starling which could sing part of his Piano Concerto in G Major ( <unk> . 453 ) . He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously , which had not yet been performed in public . He became very attached to the bird and arranged an elaborate funeral for it when it died three years later . It has been suggested that his A Musical <unk> ( K. 522 ) might be written in the comical , <unk> style of a starling 's <unk> . Other people who have owned common starlings report how adept they are at picking up phrases and expressions . The words have no meaning for the starling , so they often mix them up or use them on what to humans are inappropriate occasions in their songs . Their ability at mimicry is so great that strangers have looked in vain for the human they think they have just heard speak . 
