What is a parrot?

A parrot is a bird that lives in the forests of tropicalcountries, has a bright and variegated plumage. From other representatives of feathered parrots is distinguished by the ability to imitate human speech. Parrots can rightfully be considered one of the most beloved and popular feathered pets. Coloring the feathers of these birds can be admired endlessly, as in most parrots it shimmers and sparkles with all the colors of the rainbow. Let's take a closer look at what a parrot is and where it came from.

What are parrots?

A parrot bird is very energetic, elegant andgraceful. As we already mentioned above, one of the main advantages of parrots is their ability to remember and reproduce human speech. Quite often you can meet parrots, the lexicon of which consists of several dozen words. In addition, these smart birds are able to memorize short songs and poems, and can also imitate the voices of other pets.

At the moment more than three hundred species are knownparrots and their eighty genera. Each of the representatives of the parrot family has such features: strong, curled beak, colorful bright plumage, four toes (two of which are directed backwards, and two are forward).

The diet of these birds consists, basically, ofvegetables, fruits and grains. The most common representatives of parrots in Australia (there live half of the species). These are cockatoos, wavy parrots, corals, etc. Such species as ara, wedge-tailed, Amazon, etc. live in Central and South America (about a third of all species). Fewer than these birds live in Africa and South Asia. Parrots usually live in forests. However, some species, such as, for example, Australian, live in an open area. There are even such parrots that live in the mountains (ringed parrot Nestor and New Zealand kea).

On the appearance of parrots in Europe

For the first time parrots appeared in Greece, where they werebrought by Alexander the Great. Later they were brought to Rome. And already from there, parrots spread throughout Europe. Due to their abilities and bright coloring parrots easily won popularity among the nobility, which contained birds in cells of silver or ivory. Mostly these were large birds-various kinds of Amazons and a macaw with bright feathers. But most of all these birds were imported after Columbus discovered America.

Allow yourself to keep parrots in Europe couldonly very privileged and rich people, since the birds were quite expensive. In 1840, parrots were brought to the London Zoo, where they were propagated and in a few years began to spread around the world.