Many people like to have birds as pets so that they may have talking companions.
Some of the birds that can be trained to talk are the African grey, Quaker parakeets, Cockatiels, Amazon parrots, American budgies, lovebirds and others.
If one is looking for birds that can be trained to talk it could be better to pick up adult birds who can already talk. The only disadvantage being that their vocabulary may contain unsavory words or phrases.
For those who want to train their own birds, young birds can prove to be successful adventures.
The one thing to consider is that a bird may or may not learn to speak. Some may pick up only a few phrases while others may have a huge repertoire of words. Just as you may teach a human baby to speak, you need to teach a bird baby to speak.
It is definitely easier to teach new phrases to a bird which is already into talking. Trying to teach a bird that does not already talk can be a tough task. Some people prefer to use CDs or tapes that repeat words or phrases again and again. Do remember that the personal touch of training your pet personally will pay better dividends.
