- 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.
- Smaller parrots live 10 to 15 years.
- Parrots have large heads and short necks.
- Some American parrots are mostly blue or yellow.
- Most parrots are predominantly green, especially the ones from South America.
- Parrots weigh from just a few ounces to 3½ pounds.
- Parrots are divided into groups such as cockatoos, lories, lovebirds, macaws, and parakeets.
- Parrots range in size from the pygmy of the South Pacific which is only 3½ inches long to the hyacinth macaw which is about 10 inches long. Much of its length is in its long tail.
- Three hundred and twenty-eight different species of parrots live on the Earth.
- There are 315 species of parrot in the world.
- Parrots cannot eat chocolate because it is poisonous to their body.
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