Pre-industrial emblem
33Heraldry, materia medica or first-fish law met the parrot before film.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Speed51
Intelligence87
Range52
Resilience46
Cultural impact58
Ecological role52
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Did Alex the parrot really use words as labels?
Irene Pepperberg’s papers treated English tokens as categories, not circus tricks. Alex (1976–2007) identified colours, shapes and same/different above chance. The debate is about the ceiling, not whether the tasks happened.
Why did African greys move to CITES Appendix I in 2017?
Wild capture for pets plus forest loss cut Psittacus erithacus. Appendix I ended most commercial international trade in wild greys.
What is the kakapo recovery model?
Every Strigops is named and managed on predator-free New Zealand islands. Supplementary feeding and nest cameras make it closer to intensive care than to a hands-off reserve.
Are London’s ring-necked parakeets a conservation win?
They are an introduced boom, not a restored native. Cavity competition with starlings and bats is the local argument.
Why do so many macaws remain threatened?
Cavity trees come down with forest. The pet trade added a second cut. Spix’s macaw went extinct in the wild before a 2019–20s reintroduction attempt in Bahia.
Do parrots “talk” in the wild?
They learn contact calls in flocks. Human-word mimicry is the lab and living-room version of a general vocal-learning kit shared with songbirds and hummingbirds.
Parrot culture is local: the same silhouette is a licence in one country and a logo in another.
Status bars are editorial -- they track how loudly this type spoke in English-language media and law, not a best-species score.
Status through time
Industrial take
58Canneries, ivory, longlines or shikar scaled the take.
Cinema and logo
50A film, book or NGO mark often outran the field paper.
Statute and listing
69ESA, CITES, IWC or national parks made the type a legal object.
Live-cam and tourism
40Streams, jeeps and auctions are the present tense of attention.
Portrayals
Lab monograph2000
The Alex Studies moved parrot cognition out of anecdote columns.
News obituary2007
Alex’s death was treated as the loss of a colleague.
Documentary1980s–
Kakapo films (e.g. later Sirocco fame) made a flightless parrot a national character.
CITES listing2017
Appendix I for greys was a trade-press event as much as a field one.
Urban folklore1990s–
London parakeets attracted escapee myths (Jimi Hendrix) that historians doubt.
Pirate kitsch19th–20th c.
Shoulder parrots outlived the sailing world that invented the cliché.
Rituals
Kakapo breeding season watch
NZ public dashboards track named birds through boom years.
Clay-lick dawns
Tambopata tourism times boats to macaw licks.
Grey sanctuary routines
Rescue collections replay lab foraging tasks as welfare, not as papers.
Sayings
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