Birds

Parrot

Psittaciformes · also called parrots, psittacines

Not Evaluated ↓ herbivoreomnivore Rainforest Temperate forest Temperate grassland

A parrot is built around two tools: a hooked, hinged bill that works like a hand, and a foot with two toes forward and two back that grips like a pair of pliers. Add one of the largest brains for body size in the bird world, and you get an animal that can shell a nut one-handed, climb using its face, and learn to say your name.

Overview

Parrots are the order Psittaciformes, around 400 species, concentrated in the tropics of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia. All share the hooked bill, the zygodactyl foot (two toes front, two back), and a large head and brain. Most eat seeds, fruit, nuts, and flowers, with the lorikeets specialised for nectar. The order includes the macaws, cockatoos, parakeets, lovebirds, lorikeets, and the odd New Zealand outliers.

The bill and foot

A parrot’s upper bill is hinged to the skull and moves on its own, and with a thick muscular tongue and a foot it can lift to its mouth, it can crack, hold, and turn food with great precision — and use the bill as a third limb when climbing. Most parrots are left- or right-footed, like human handedness.

Big brains, real talk

Parrots are vocal learners — one of only a few animal groups that can copy sounds from outside their own species. They form speech with the syrinx at the base of the windpipe, shaped by the throat and tongue. Most pet birds mimic without meaning, but the African grey Alex learned to use words correctly for colours, shapes, and numbers.

A family in trouble

Large parrots live 50 to 70 years or more. Most species are tropical-forest birds that need old trees with nest cavities, and around a third of all parrots are threatened — the worst record of any large bird family — from pet-trade trapping and forest clearance. Several, including Spix’s macaw, are extinct in the wild.

Status

Parrots as a group are Not Evaluated, with a decreasing trend. A few, such as some Australian cockatoos and the kea, remain common, but the direction of travel for the family is downward.

Parrot: common questions

How do parrots talk, and do they understand what they say?

Parrots imitate speech because they are vocal learners, one of only a handful of animal groups, along with songbirds, hummingbirds, and humans, with the brain circuitry to hear a new sound and reshape their own voice to match it. They produce the sounds not with lips but by controlling the syrinx, the vocal organ at the base of the windpipe, and by shaping the throat and thick tongue. Most pet parrots mimic without grasping meaning, but controlled work with the African grey parrot Alex showed a parrot can learn to use dozens of words correctly to label colours, shapes, numbers, and materials, and to answer simple questions, so at least some understanding is within reach.

What is the difference between a parrot and a parakeet, and where do macaws and cockatoos fit?

They are all parrots. Parakeet is an informal term for any small to medium parrot with a long tapered tail, covering the budgerigar, the rose-ringed parakeet, the monk parakeet, and many others across several genera. Macaws are the large, long-tailed parrots of the American tropics. Cockatoos are a distinct family within the parrot order, mostly Australasian, recognised by their movable head crest and their white, black, grey, or pink rather than green plumage. Lovebirds, lorikeets, amazons, conures, and the kakapo are all parrots too. The order as a whole is Psittaciformes.

Why are so many parrots endangered?

Two pressures dominate. The first is trapping for the pet trade, since parrots are prized as cage birds and for decades huge numbers of wild birds were caught and exported, with nestlings often taken by felling the nest tree. Trade rules have tightened, but illegal capture continues for many sought-after species. The second is habitat loss, because most parrots need mature tropical forest with large old trees that have the cavities they nest in, and logging and clearance for farming remove exactly those trees. Island parrots face the added threat of introduced rats and cats. Together these have pushed about a third of all parrot species toward extinction.

How long do parrots live?

Longer than almost any other bird of similar size, and long enough that owning one is a serious commitment. Small species such as budgerigars and lovebirds typically live 5 to 15 years. Medium parrots such as African greys and amazons often reach 40 to 60. Large macaws and cockatoos commonly live 50 to 70 years in good care, and individuals have been documented past 80, meaning a young person who takes on a macaw may need to plan for the bird to outlive them. This slow pace of life, with late maturity and few chicks per year, is also part of why parrot populations recover slowly from losses.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published November 7, 2026. Last updated November 7, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Psittaciformes
Diet: Mostly seeds, nuts, fruit, buds, flowers, nectar, and roots, cracked and shelled with the powerful bill and manipulated with the foot, with the lorikeets specialised for nectar and pollen, a few species taking insects and grubs, and the kea of New Zealand also eating carrion and fat
A bill that works like a hand: A parrot's upper bill is hinged to the skull so it can move independently, and combined with a thick muscular tongue and a foot that can be raised to the mouth, it lets a parrot crack a hard nut, hold and turn food, and climb using the bill as a third limb
Zygodactyl feet: Parrots have two toes pointing forward and two back, an arrangement shared with woodpeckers and cuckoos that gives a strong, pincer-like grip for climbing, perching on thin twigs, and lifting food to the bill, and most parrots favour one foot as a person favours one hand
Big brains and true vocal learning: Parrots have a forebrain region for learning and producing sound that works much as the equivalent does in songbirds and in humans, and they are one of the few animal groups that can copy sounds outside their own species, which is the basis of talking pet parrots
Some of the longest-lived birds: Large parrots are exceptionally long-lived for their size, with big macaws and cockatoos regularly reaching 50 to 70 years and well-documented individuals passing 80, a lifespan that makes a pet parrot a multi-decade commitment
A southern, tropical family with odd outliers: Most of the roughly 400 parrot species live in the tropics of South America, Africa, southern Asia, and Australasia, but a few break the pattern, including the alpine kea, the flightless nocturnal kakapo, and the extinct Carolina parakeet that once ranged into the northern United States
The most threatened large bird family: Around a third of parrot species are threatened with extinction, a higher proportion than almost any comparable bird group, driven by trapping for the pet trade and by clearance of the forests that hold their nest trees
Range: The tropics and southern temperate zone worldwide, with the greatest numbers in South and Central America, Australia and New Guinea, and sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, plus southern Asia and many Pacific islands, in rainforest, dry woodland, savanna, mangroves, farmland, high mountains in New Zealand, and increasingly city parks where escaped birds have taken hold.
Conservation status: Not Evaluated ↓ ≈ Not assessed as an order of around 400 species, but roughly 30 per cent are listed as threatened and many more are near threatened or declining, with the wild-caught pet trade, logging and farming of tropical forest, and introduced rats, cats, and disease the main causes; several species, including Spix's macaw, are extinct in the wild, while a few, such as some Australian cockatoos and the kea, remain common in the wild