Pet parrots can be amazing if they demand friends, but they can present some unexpected difficulties for individuals who are more accustomed to fluffy mammalian companions. Long-lived, smart, and extremely social birds need particularly elevated levels of attention and enrichment, or else they can pick up poor practices and find themselves bored and stressed to the point of plucking their own feathers.
While some pet parrots come from breeders, trade-in exotic parrots is a big business around the globe and considerably adds to their wild decrease. After the enactment of the 1992 Wild Bird Conservation Act and CITES, constraints on importing exotic species, trafficking in wild birds has been less of an issue in the U.S.
1- A Parrot-Proof Tracker Is on the Horizon
Little is known about wild parrot conduct, partly because it is difficult to see and pursue the canopy-dwelling birds. GPS-tracking parrot studies are also highly rare, as birds are able to remove foreign objects from their bodies. But research released in The Auk in 2015 could assist researchers to monitor these elusive creatures better. The scientists were able to monitor a group of keas in New Zealand without any apparent ill impacts on the birds by enclosing GPS trackers in bite-proof plastic.
2- The Black Palm Is the Panda of Parrots
The black palm cockatoo, native to rainforests in the South Pacific, is one of the hardest birds to raise and raise in captivity. Chicks often die about a year old— even wild pairs have trouble rearing chicks effectively. The causes of their reproductive disorders are still unknown, but they may have to do with their photosensitive skin, which response to natural sunlight.
3- The World Record Holder Knew More Than 1,700 Words
Though parrots are generally famous for being chatty, Puck, a cheery blue parakeet, landed in the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records for his vocabulary skills, with a recognized set of 1,728 words. In addition to speaking, Amazon parrots are renowned singers, including Groucho, who entertained TV audiences with a rendition of “How Much is that Doggie in the Window” in 2010.
4- Some Parrots Migrate
Although most species have a home range throughout the year, it is known that the swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) and the orange-bellied parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) migrate between Australia and Tasmania across the Bass Strait each year. Both species are at serious risk.
5- Parrot Feathers Contain Antibacterial Pigments
The wonderful plumage of a parrot has a unique safeguard against harm: psittacofulvine’s, a bacteria-resistant pigment known to create only parrots, give their red, yellow, and green color to the feathers of the birds. Researchers subjected various feather colors to a feather-damaging strain of bacteria in a 2011 research in Biology Letters and discovered that the pigments helped safeguard the glorious plumage from degradation.
6- Your Pet Parrot May Outlive You
Many parrots have near-human lifespans, a consideration many people don’t truly grasp when seeking a parrot as a companion. Larger species like macaws and cockatoos are known to live for between 35 and 50 years. Tarbu, an African grey in England, lived to the ripe old age of 55. The current oldest parrot is 82-year-old Cookie, a Major Mitchell’s cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri) that resides at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
7- The Heftiest Parrot Weighs as Much as a Cat
Parrots cover an amazing variety of shapes and sizes. The small pygmy (Micropsitta pusio) weighs just one ounce and is about the size of the finger of an adult human. The wonderful hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is the longest parrot in the world, checking in from tip to tail at almost 3.5 feet. But New Zealand’s flightless, nocturnal kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) wins for weight: a completely grown male can record as much as nine pounds— an adult housecat’s average weight.
8- Parrots Taste With the Tops of Their Beaks
Though parrots do have some taste glands at the backs of their throats, most of their 300 or so taste buds are located on the roofs of their mouths. Compared with the 10,000 taste buds in a human mouth, the birds’ palate may not seem like much, but parrots do show definite preferences for certain foods.
9- Parrots Usually Match Their Mates
With a couple of notable exceptions, males and females of most parrot species look virtually identical. It takes a keen eye—and usually a lab test—to tell a boy bird from a girl bird. But some species, like the Solomon Island Eclectus (Eclectus roratus), are so different that for many years people thought they were distinct species of birds. Males are bright emerald green with flame-colored beaks, while females top off their crimson and royal blue ensembles with black beaks and a bright scarlet head.
10- A Third of the World’s Parrots Face Extinction
More species frequently land on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a mixture of habitat destruction and constant poaching for the pet trade. For example, a November research discovered that logging has decimated 99 percent of Ghana’s African gray population (Psittacus erithacus), threatening wild numbers of one of the most iconic parrot species.
11- Not All Parrots Are Tropical
Of the roughly 350 known species of parrots, most live in the tropical and subtropical regions of Australia, Asia, Central and South America and Africa. But some parrots break that geographic mold. Keas live in alpine regions of New Zealand and nest in ground burrows, while the endangered maroon-fronted parrot (Rhynchopsitta terrisi) dwells at 6,000 feet in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains of Mexico.
12- Polly Wants Mutton, Too
Many parrots are omnivores and are going to consume almost anything— fruit, seeds, nuts, insects, and even meat. Some species, such as the South Pacific rainbow-colored lories and lorikeets, feed on brush-tipped tongues almost solely on nectar, although these birds have lately been seen eating meat at feeding stations in Australia. Native kea (Nestor species) was first noted in New Zealand attacking and murdering sheep in 1868 and persecuted as sheep-killers until 1986 when protected status was awarded to them.
13- Parrot Toes Are Zygodactyl
Like most other birds, parrots have four toes per foot. But instead of the usual three-in-front-one-behind arrangement, parrot toes are configured for maximum grip: two in front and two behind, like two pairs of opposable thumbs. Combined with beaks that can crack even the world’s toughest nuts, their unique feet make them formidable eaters, not to mention dexterous climbers.
14- Some Parrots Grind Their Own Calcium Supplements
As a famous research subject, the African grey parrot Alex was said to have the intelligence of a human 5-year-old. Now the psittacine tribe can claim another brainy feat: tool use. Researchers at the University of York and the University of St. Andrews observed captive greater vasa parrots (Coracopsis vasa) using date pits and pebbles to pulverize cockle shells. Male vasas ate the powder and then offered a regurgitated calcium-rich snack to females before mating. Be thankful you get chocolates.
15- They taste with the roofs of their mouths
Taste: It is believed that parrots have a poorly developed sense of taste because taste buds are on the roof of their mouths and not on their tongues. Birds can taste but they are limited to flavor because they have fewer taste buds than other species.
