After dogs, cats and fish, birds are America’s fourth favorite pet. An estimated 14 million birds live in captivity across the United States, a great many of them parrots. And no wonder: With their captivating colors, acrobatic antics and often silly personalities, these avian characters are hard to resist.
Pet parrots can be incredible if demanding friends, but for people more accustomed to fluffy mammalian companions, they can present some unexpected challenges. Keep reading to discover 8 facts about parrots you absolutely need to know!
1. Parrots Eat With Their Feet
All birds have amazing grip but only the parrot is able to hold food up to their beak while eating. They can grasp onto their food with one foot and then move it up to their beak so they can nibble on it. In fact, parrots eat very similarly to how we do. Their fleshy toes act a lot like how human fingers do.
2. Parrots Are Incredibly Intelligent
You don’t have to be around a parrot long before you figure out it’s a smart animal. It turns out that its brain structure is similar to primates. That can explain some of the amazing things that they can do, such as use tools and learn to talk. Some birds, such as cockatoos, have even learned how to open garbage cans!
3. 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.
4. Parrots Can Live For Over 60 Years
The bigger the parrot the longer their lifespan usually is. For instance, the African Grey is known to live well beyond 60 years of age. Macaws usually live between 25-50 years, while medium-sized parrots commonly live between 15-20 years. Pet parrots commonly live longer than wild ones because they have fewer threats from predators and diseases. The lifespan of a household parrot is around 30 years, with many exceeding this.
5. Parrots Are Social Animals
Most species of parrots are very social and live in large flocks or pandemoniums. These birds live in groups of a few to a thousand! They are also very vocal. That’s often a necessity, considering the habitats of many birds. Dense rainforests make it hard to find one another. Their bright plumage helps, too.
6. Polly Wants Mutton, Too
Many parrots are omnivores and will eat pretty much anything—fruit, seeds, nuts, insects and even meat. Some species, like the rainbow-colored lories and lorikeets of the South Pacific, feed almost exclusively on nectar with brush-tipped tongues, though recently even these birds were seen eating meat at feeding stations in Australia. In New Zealand, native kea (Nestor species) were first observed attacking and killing sheep in 1868 and were persecuted as sheep-killers until 1986, when they were granted protected status.
7. The Band Hatebeak have a Gray Parrot as Their Lead Vocalist
This is one of the most unusual facts about Parrots we’ve come across! This death metal band comes from Maryland and has a parrot called Waldo as their lead vocalist. They’ve released songs titled “Beak of Purification,” and “Birdseeds of Vengeance.” If Waldo is feeling stubborn and refuses to perform, his bandmates usually manage to coax him back with his favorite food…dried bananas. Hatebeak doesn’t tour as they know all the traveling wouldn’t be fair on Waldo.
8. An African Gray Parrot Holds the World Record for Learning the Most Words
Puck, an African Gray Parrot, had the largest vocabulary of any other bird at an astonishing 1,728 words. He also appeared to understand what he was saying and could count.
