Popular birds like parrots are often kept at home as pets. But the myth that they are not very smart — it’s just a myth. In fact, parrots — extremely intelligent and easy to train birds, especially some of their species.
Interesting facts about parrots
- The smallest parrots are called woodpeckers and live in New Guinea. The length of their body does not exceed 10 cm, and the length of the wings – 6-7 cm.
- Owl parrots that inhabit New Zealand look really very similar to owls. Unlike their counterparts, members of this species do not fly and live in underground burrows or under tree roots. Scientists believe they may be one of the most ancient living bird species.
- Parrots are considered long-lived birds that can easily celebrate a centennial anniversary, but this is not so. Most parrots live only up to 50 years, although there are cases of longer life, when birds were 65 and even 70 years old (interesting facts about birds).
- Lori parrots feed mainly on pollen and nectar, and their diet includes over 5000 varieties of flowers.
- Hyacinth Macaw — the largest of the parrots inhabiting the Earth. The body length of these bright blue birds reaches 1 m, while these parrots weigh only a few kilograms. Parrots of this species are also the most expensive – because of their beauty and rarity, the cost of one individual is about 500,000 rubles.
- Black cockatoos have the largest beak among all parrot species – with a length of up to 10 cm, it can easily bite a person’s finger. Actually, this type of parrot owes its name to a powerful beak, because in Malay the word “cockatoo” means “nippers”.
- New Zealand kea parrots eat not only seeds, fruits and nuts, like their counterparts, but and lamb. Local farmers claim that under the cover of darkness, parrots dive on sheep and rams, pecking animals to death.
- Jaco parrots can not only remember up to 2000 words, but also pronounce whole phrases and sentences with different intonations.
- Budgerigars can reach speeds of up to 120 km/h, turn their heads 180 degrees and see up to 150 pictures per second (10 times more than humans). Parrots of this species have been known to live in Australia for over 5 million years (interesting facts about Australia).
- A healthy budgerigar has a body temperature of 41 degrees, and their hearts beat up to 200 times per minute.
- The first Europeans to see parrots were the soldiers of Alexander the Great, who invaded Indian territory (interesting facts about India).
- In the past, Indians believed that a self-respecting man should not only grow a tree, build a dwelling and to become a father to a son, but also to raise a parrot.
- In ancient Rome, parrots that could speak were worth more than young slaves. There were special teachers who earned a lot of money to teach birds to speak.
- The beaks of parrots have a special design that allows birds to wield them with incredible accuracy – for example, peck seeds from strawberries without damaging the berry.