Parrot Facts

Image credit: Mauricio Forlani / World Animal Protection Brazil

Ready to learn some fun facts about parrots? Don't forget to take a super fun Australian birds quiz at the end to test your knowledge!

Parrots are known for being charismatic, intelligent and musical. Some of these birds can imitate non-avian sounds, like human speech! 

Male African grey parrots are well known for their stellar ability to impersonate humans.

These birds are a diverse bunch - around the world there are over 350 different species.

So, what defines a parrot? All of them have curved beaks and four toes on each foot, two pointing backward and two pointing forward.

While a human has about 10,000 tastebuds in their mouth, parrots only have 300. Most are located on the roof of their mouth. This doesn’t stop them having favourite foods, with diets consisting mostly of fruit, flowers, buds, nuts, seeds and insects.

Some parrots may live just as long as you. In the wild many will live for nearly 80 years. 

New Zealand’s Kākāpō, a large flightless, nocturnal parrot, is known for having one of the longest parrot lifespans of 90 years!

Next, they are transferred to a holding facility where they are kept in dark and dirty spaces, fed inadequately and often left vulnerable to predators. If they survive this, they are crammed into crates with approximately 60-80 other birds, where they sometimes remain squashed together for 24 hours or longer.

Viciously stolen from the wild to be sold as pets, they must now endure captivity for the rest of their lives. The stress of captivity results in unnatural behaviours, most commonly feather plucking, an obsessive and compulsive behaviour associated with chronic stress and boredom.