Parrots

During a walk through the Huntington Botanical Gardens with her mother one morning, Brenda Ramirez was alarmed by the sudden squawks, warbles, and screeches of troops of parrots flying overhead at great speed in tight, precise formations.“I asked my mom what they were,” Ramirez recalled of that day 14 years ago. “She said, ‘Mija, they are just like the parrots from Mexico we’ve seen in zoos, except for one thing: They are free flying and breed in the trees along our city streets.” Aggressive and…

Over the last decade I have clicked more than a hundred pictures of the neighbourhood Pithecellobium dulce tree, commonly known as Madras thorn or jungle jalebi tree. Pictures of happy squirrels, parrots and so many other birds enjoying the sour-sweet, bright red and green jungle jalebis(Manila tamarinds). The tree that stood proudly, laden with fruit, just outside the boundary wall of my house. An uneven brown stump exists in the place of that beautiful tree now. Nom nom: A rose ringed parakeet feasting on ripe…

Two African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) perching on something.Photo: LocHuynh (Shutterstock)The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in the UK is trying a new plan to contain its growing group of foul-mouthed African grey parrots. The zoo will introduce the expletive-loving birds to a larger flock in hopes that the other parrots will pass along their good manners. But there is a chance that the experiment will only end up causing more bird cussing.Octopuses Caught on Camera Throwing Shells at Each OtherIn 2020, the…

A bunch of rude parrots who are notorious for swearing are in the process of being reformed with the help of birds from a new flock at a wildlife park, with the hope that they’ll adopt less offensive sounds.A British wildlife park has come up with a new plan to rehabilitate its potty-mouthed parrots.Back in 2020, five vulgar African gray parrots were donated to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in eastern England. They were subsequently isolated from the flock in an attempt to improve their language, CNN reported.However,…

Welcome to the first installment of Gizmodo’s Animal Crime of the Week, a regular exploration of animals and their bad behavior (but hey, it’s only natural). And what better place to start than by highlighting an animal crime ring so notorious that it’s now being intensively studied by scientists? Meet the trash-stealing cockatoo parrots of Australia. Alex Winter on His Character in Destroy All Neighbors For years, groups of sulphur-crested cockatoos in Sydney, Australia have been breaking into people’s trashbins and…

Kākāpō are avid walkers, wandering on strong legs for miles at a time and hiking up mountains to find mates. They’re keen climbers too, clambering up New Zealand’s 65-foot-high rimu trees on large claws to forage for red berries on the tips of the conifer’s branches.But there’s one thing that the world’s heaviest parrot species can’t do: fly. With their bulky frames — males weigh up to nine pounds — and waddling gait, they have little chance of outrunning predators like stoats and feral cats.…

Have you ever seen a parrot in a strange place? If you hear a flock of squawky, large and colorful birds and wonder if you're seeing things, you're not. Various species of parrots have escaped from the pet trade and have established thriving colonies in cities around the world—Sarasota, Fla.; New York City; Surprise, Ariz.; Singapore; Amsterdam; Tel Aviv—they're everywhere. It's hard not to anthropomorphize. As science writer Ryan F. Mandelbaum explains, they're smart, social, adaptable and assertive. They eat anything…

At Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery the living get as much attention as the dead. Groundskeepers maintain the 478-acre historic landmark as an arboretum and habitat for more than 200 breeding and migratory bird species. But many visiting wildlife lovers aren't interested in those native birds. They're at the entryway, their binoculars trained on the spire atop its Gothic Revival arches. They've come to see the parrots. The urban cemetery hosts dozens of long-tailed, dove-size parrots, lime green with gray accents on their…

When the patient arrives, it can barely move its body. Sometimes it can’t blink. Vibrant green wings falter as the parrot tries—and fails—to fly. A nurse props up the bird’s limp, violet-blue head on a makeshift cushion and slides a bowl of nectar in front of its bright red beak. It is just one of dozens of rainbow lorikeets being treated for a mysterious paralyzing illness at this wildlife hospital in eastern Australia. Thousands of the birds are afflicted every year in the region, where they are a fixture in backyards,…

Parrots can get a lot out of video calls with their feathered friends just like we can from Zoom meetings with our favorite humans.Findings from a recent study by researchers from Northeastern University and MIT Media Lab in the US and the University of Glasgow in the UK could point to ways to better look after the tens of millions of parrots around the world kept domestically as pets.The research involved 15 parrots voluntarily initiating calls to a selection of other parrots on smart phones and tablets. The birds…