Parrots Facts

Some species of the parrot have become endangered. Thousands are brought to Europe and North America as pets. Many of these die making this journey.

Parrots have a wide range of articulations. Wild parrots do not imitate. Only pets will mimic people and noises they hear. The African gray parrots are the best mimics.

Parrots are hole nesters. They build their nests in holes in trees, termite mounts, rock cavities, or ground tunnels. A few exceptions will build stick nests.

More than 90 percent of the parrots imported into the United States are probably wild caught.

It is thought that two million parrots alone are legally or illegally traded each year.
More than 1.8 million parrots legally entered the international trade from 1982-1988 of which 80 percent were imported into the United States.

Recent figures suggest that 40 percent of these species are threatened primarily by habitat destruction, 17 percent primarily by trade, 36 percent by a combination of the two causes and 7 percent by other factors.

At least 30 percent of the 140 parrot species found in the Western Hemisphere are now threatened with extinction.

An additional 25,000 parrots die of suffocation, starvation, inhumane treatment while being transported to the Texas border.

An estimated 25,000 wild parrots, caught or plucked from their nests in Mexico, are smuggled across the Texas border each year.

Every year, approximately 250,000 parrots are imported to the United States to satisfy a demand for exotic birds as pets.

It is estimated in the year 2000 there were 60 million birds in 6.13 million homes.

In 1990 there were 11 million pet birds living in 5.1 million households in the US
By 1996 the number of pet birds had grown to 40 million while the number of homes remained fairly consistent at 5.9 million.

In the wild, Macaws and Cockatoos can fly 500 miles per day in search of food!
Some parrot vocalizations can be heard for up to 1 mile!

Wild parrots live in the forest of tropical zones including South America, Australia, and New Guinea. A few live in Africa and mainland Asia.

Larger parrots such as the macaws and cockatoos live more than 75 years.