Pets s in
Cuba Parrots may not make good pets for most people because of their natural wild instincts such as screaming and chewing. Although parrots can be very affectionate and cute when immature, they often become aggressive when mature (partly due to mishandling and poor training) and may bite, causing serious injury. For this reason, parrot rescue groups estimate that most parrots are surrendered and rehomed through at least five homes before reaching their permanent destinations or before dying prematurely from unintentional or intentional neglect and abuse. The parrots' ability to mimic human words and their bright colours and beauty prompt impulse buying from unsuspecting consumers. The domesticated budgerigar, a small parrot, is the most popular of all pet bird species. In 1992, the newspaper
USA Today published that 11 million pet birds were in the United States alone, many of them parrots. Europeans kept birds matching the description of the
rose-ringed parakeet (or called the ring-necked parrot), documented particularly in a first-century account by
Pliny the Elder. As they have been prized for thousands of years for their beauty and ability to talk, they have also often been misunderstood. For example, author Wolfgang de Grahl says in his 1987 book
The Grey Parrot that some importers had parrots drink only coffee while they were shipped by boat, believing that pure water was detrimental and that their actions would increase survival rates during shipping. Nowadays, it is commonly accepted that the caffeine in coffee is toxic to birds. Pet parrots may be kept in a cage or
aviary; though generally, tame parrots should be allowed out regularly on a stand or gym. Depending on locality, parrots may be either wild-caught or be captive-bred, though in most areas without native parrots, pet parrots are captive-bred. Parrot species that are commonly kept as pets include
conures,
macaws, amazon parrots,
cockatoos, greys,
lovebirds,
cockatiels,
budgerigars,
caiques,
parakeets, and
Eclectus,
Pionus, and
Poicephalus species. Temperaments and personalities vary even within a species, just as with dog breeds. Grey parrots are thought to be excellent talkers, but not all grey parrots want to talk, though they have the capability to do so. Noise level, talking ability, cuddliness with people, and care needs can sometimes depend on how the bird is cared for and the attention he/she regularly receives. riding a tricycle at a show in Spain Parrots invariably require an enormous amount of attention, care, and intellectual stimulation to thrive, akin to that required by a three-year-old child, which many people find themselves unable to provide in the long term. Parrots that are bred for pets may be hand-fed or otherwise accustomed to interacting with people from a young age to help ensure they become tame and trusting. However, even when hand fed, parrots revert to biting and aggression during hormonal surges and if mishandled or neglected. Parrots are not low-maintenance pets; they require feeding, grooming, veterinary care, training, and environmental enrichment through the provision of toys, exercise, and social interaction (with other parrots or humans) for good health. Some large parrot species, including large cockatoos, amazons, and macaws, have very long lifespans, with 80 years being reported, and record ages of over 100. Small parrots, such as lovebirds, hanging parrots, and budgies, have shorter lifespans up to 15–20 years. Some parrot species can be quite loud, and many of the larger parrots can be destructive and require a very large cage, and a regular supply of new toys, branches, or other items to chew up. Parrots do not often do well in captivity, causing some parrots to go insane and develop repetitive behaviours, such as swaying and screaming, or they become riddled with intense fear. Feather destruction and self-mutilation, although not commonly seen in the wild, occur often in captivity. Some owners have offered their pet parrots mobile apps for entertainment. Scientists Rébecca Kleinberger of
Northeastern University and Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas of the
University of Glasgow performed a pilot study to tailor apps to parrots' preferences. The birds tended to use rapid tongue movements to interact with screens, possibly mimicking movements used to manipulate seeds. As a result, Brazil now has only a very small number of breeding pairs left in the wild. The popularity of parrots as pets has led to a thriving—and often illegal—trade in the birds, and some species are now threatened with extinction. A combination of trapping of wild birds and damage to parrot habitats makes survival difficult or even impossible for some species of parrot. Importation of wild-caught parrots into the US and Europe is illegal after the Wild Bird Population Act was passed in 1992. The scale of the problem can be seen in the
Tony Silva case of 1996, in which a parrot expert and former director at
Tenerife's
Loro Parque (Europe's largest parrot park) was jailed in the United States for 82 months and fined $100,000 for smuggling hyacinth macaws (such birds command a very high price.) Different nations have different methods of handling internal and international trade. Australia has banned the export of its native birds since 1960. In July 2007, following years of campaigning by
NGOs and outbreaks of
avian flu, the
European Union (EU) halted the importation of all wild birds with a permanent ban on their import. Prior to an earlier temporary ban started in late October 2005, the EU was importing about two million live birds a year, about 90% of the international market: hundreds of thousands of these were parrots. No national laws protect feral parrot populations in the U.S. Mexico has a licensing system for capturing and selling native birds. According to a 2007 report, 65,000 to 78,500 parrots are captured annually, but the mortality rate before reaching a buyer is over 75%, meaning around 50,000 to 60,000 will die.
Culture Collection Lima, Peru Parrots have featured in human writings, story, art, humor, religion, and music for thousands of years, such as
Aesop's fable "The parrot and the cat", the mention "
The parrot can speak, and yet is nothing more than a bird" in
The Book of Rites of
Ancient China, the
Masnavi by
Rumi of
Persia in 1250 "The Merchant and the Parrot". Recent books about parrots in human culture include
Parrot Culture. In ancient times and current, parrot
feathers have been used in ceremonies and for decoration. They also have a long history as pets, stretching back thousands of years, and were often kept as a symbol of royalty or wealth. Parrots are used as symbols of nations and nationalism. A parrot is found on the
flag of Dominica and two parrots on their
coat of arms. The
St. Vincent parrot is the national bird of
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a Caribbean nation. Sayings about parrots colour the modern English language. The verb "parrot" in the dictionary means "to repeat by rote". Also clichés such as the British expression "sick as a parrot" are given; although this refers to extreme disappointment rather than illness, it may originate from the disease of
psittacosis, which can be passed to humans. The first occurrence of a related expression is in
Aphra Behn's 1681 play
The False Count. Fans of
Jimmy Buffett are known as
parrotheads. Parrots feature in many media. Magazines are devoted to parrots as pets, and to the conservation of parrots. Fictional media include
Monty Python's "
Dead Parrot sketch",
Home Alone 3 and
Rio; and documentaries include
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Parrots have been a food source to several groups.
Australian settlers made parrot pies, while the Maori hunted kākāpō for their meat and feathers. Every year on 31 May, World Parrot Day is celebrated around the world.
Mythology As early as the ancient Chinese
Shang dynasty ( 1600 BCE – 1045 BCE), jade artifacts are found crafted in the shape of parrots and were subjected to burning over wood along with other jade objects and livestock, likely as a part of ritual sacrifices known as 'Liao' sacrifices (), generating smoke offerings to the heavens, gods and ancestors. This ritual is believed to have been inherited from previous worship practices and continued into the
Zhou dynasty. A jade parrot, among other artifacts, recovered from the
tomb of Fu Hao at
Yinxu provides significant evidence of this practice. In
Polynesian legend as current in the
Marquesas Islands, the hero
Laka/
Aka is mentioned as having undertaken a long and dangerous voyage to
Aotona in what are now the
Cook Islands, to obtain the highly prized feathers of a red parrot as gifts for his son and daughter. On the voyage, 100 of his 140 rowers died of hunger on their way, but the survivors reached Aotona and captured enough parrots to fill 140 bags with their feathers. Parrots have also been considered sacred. The
Moche people of ancient
Peru worshipped birds and often depicted parrots in their art. Parrots are popular in
Buddhist scripture and many writings about them exist. For example,
Amitābha once changed himself into a parrot to aid in converting people. Another old story tells how after a forest caught fire, the parrot was so concerned, it carried water to try to put out the flames. The ruler of heaven was so moved upon seeing the parrot's act, he sent rain to put out the fire. In
Chinese Buddhist iconography, a parrot is sometimes depicted hovering on the upper right side
Guan Yin clasping a pearl or prayer beads in its beak. In
Hindu mythology, the parrot is the mount of the god of love,
Kamadeva. The bird is also associated with the goddess
Meenakshi and the poet-saint
Andal.
Feral populations s in San Francisco Escaped parrots of several species have become established in the wild outside their natural ranges and in some cases outside the natural range of parrots. Among the earliest instances were pet
red shining-parrots from Fiji, which established a population on the islands of southern
Tonga. These introductions were prehistoric and red-shining parrots were recorded in Tonga by
Captain Cook in the 1770s. Escapees first began breeding in cities in
California,
Texas, and
Florida in the 1950s (with unproven earlier claims dating to the 1920s in Texas and Florida). They have proved surprisingly hardy in adapting to conditions in Europe and North America. They sometimes even multiply to the point of becoming a nuisance or pest, and a threat to local ecosystems, and control measures have been used on some feral populations. Feral parrot flocks can be formed after mass escapes of newly imported, wild-caught parrots from airports or quarantine facilities. Large groups of escapees have the protection of a flock and possess the skills to survive and breed in the wild. Some feral parakeets may have descended from escaped zoo birds. Escaped or released pets rarely contribute to establishing feral populations, as they usually result in only a few escapees, and most captive-born birds do not possess the necessary survival skills to find food or avoid predators and often do not survive long without human caretakers. However, in areas where there are existing feral parrot populations, escaped pets may sometimes successfully join these flocks.
Threats and conservation went extinct in the mid-1800s due to overhunting and habitat loss. The principal threats of parrots are habitat loss and degradation, hunting, and, for certain species, the wild-bird trade. Parrots, being cavity nesters, are vulnerable to the loss of nesting sites and to competition with introduced species for those sites. The loss of old trees is a particular problem in some areas, particularly in Australia, where suitable nesting trees must be centuries old. Many parrots occur only on islands and are vulnerable to introduced species such as rats and
feral cat, as they lack the
appropriate antipredator behaviours needed to deal with predators. Island species, such as the
Puerto Rican amazon, which have small populations in restricted habitats, are also vulnerable to natural events, such as hurricanes. Due to deforestation, the Puerto Rican amazon is one of the world's rarest birds despite conservation efforts. , which was hunted to extinction in conservatory One of the largest parrot conservation groups is the
World Parrot Trust, an international organisation. The group gives assistance to worthwhile projects, as well as producing a magazine (
PsittaScene) and raising funds through donations and memberships, often from pet parrot owners. On a smaller scale, local parrot clubs raise money to donate to a conservation cause. Zoo and wildlife centres usually provide public education, to change habits that cause damage to wild populations. Conservation measures to conserve the habitats of some of the high-profile charismatic parrot species has also protected many of the less charismatic species living in the ecosystem. A popular attraction that many zoos employ is a feeding station for lories and lorikeets, where visitors feed them with cups of liquid food. This is usually done in association with educational signs and lectures.
Birdwatching-based
ecotourism can be beneficial to economies. Several projects aimed specifically at parrot conservation have met with success. Translocation of vulnerable kākāpō, followed by intensive management and supplementary feeding, has increased the population from 50 individuals to 123 in 2010 and 247 in 2024. In New Caledonia, the
Ouvea parakeet was threatened by trapping for the pet trade and loss of habitat. Community-based conservation, which eliminated the threat of poaching, has allowed the population to increase from around 600 birds in 1993 to over 2,000 birds in 2009. As of 2009, the IUCN recognises 19 species of parrot as extinct since 1500 (the date used to denote modern extinctions). This does not include species like the
New Caledonian lorikeet, which has not been officially seen for 100 years, yet is still listed as critically endangered. Trade, export, and import of all wild-caught parrots is regulated and only permitted under special licensed circumstances in countries party to the
Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which came into force in 1975 to regulate the international trade of all endangered, wild-caught animal and plant species. In 1975, 24 parrot species were included in Appendix I, thus prohibiting commercial international trade in these birds. Since that initial listing, continuing threats from international trade led it to add an additional 32 parrot varieties to Appendix I. All other parrot species, aside from the
rosy-faced lovebird,
budgerigar,
cockatiel and
rose-ringed parakeet (which are not included in the appendices) are protected on Appendix II of CITES. In addition, individual countries may have laws to regulate trade in certain species; for example, the EU has banned parrot trade, whereas Mexico has a licensing system for capturing parrots. == See also ==