I can't believe no one has suggested a budgie yet! I've had four, all lovely.. My first one, Lucky, lived for 10 years and was so, so smart. He could sing snippets of songs and say tonnes of words.. and his chatter wasn't too loud (for a bird). We would let him out in the morning before school and he would sit on the edge of our cereal bowls and eat our cheerios with us. When I get out of university, the first thing I'm doing is buying another budgie