Hi, my name is Steve.
I take care of birds for a living.
A lot of people ask me how you can tell if a bird is a parrot.
There's a few simple ways and we're going to be learning about those today.
A common misconception people have is that a parrot is that red and yellow bird you always
see on a pirate's shoulder.
That bird is a Scarlet Macaw, and it is a type of parrot, but there's many more beautiful
birds that share the parrot group.
Here's how you can know you're looking at a parrot.
Hooked bill.
Two toes forward, two toes back.
And the bird you're looking at has a hooked bill, two toes forward, two toes back, but
it's not an owl.
It's surprisingly hard to find something that's true of every parrot, but not true in every
owl.
But you know what an owl looks like.
It's not a parrot.
Anyway, hooked beak, also called a hookbill, and two toes forward, two toes back.
Those together are a very good indicator you're looking at a parrot.
They are social birds and are very smart.
Parrots live in most of the warm, nice places in the world.
Central America, the Amazon, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
See, I told you they were smart.
Parrots are almost entirely plant foragers.
They eat seeds, nuts, fruits, leaves, and other plant material.
Parrots have some neat adaptations to eat these foods.
Their beaks are adapted to tear plants apart as they search for food.
Their upper jaw is not fused to the skull, and there's muscles to apply lots of force
through the upper and lower jaws.
In the largest macaws, their beaks can apply over 1,000 pounds per square inch of force.
That's strong enough to crack open the toughest nuts.
Their tongue can manipulate food.
And they can hold food in their feet.
Parrots are very social, traveling in large flocks.
They learn behaviors from each other.
For example, the food-holding behavior we just talked about is not an innate behavior.
They learn it by watching other parrots.
The blue and gold macaw stops laying eggs at the age of 35, but their average lifespan,
even in their natural environment, is 60 years!
This confused researchers for a long time.
What are these older parrots doing if they're not making more parrots?
By studying the birds, they noticed that older birds are old for a reason.
They know how to find food, and they know how to avoid predators.
Older birds teach these skills to younger birds, improving the survival rate of the
whole flock.
There's one rule in biology, which is that every rule has an exception.
So there's a couple parrots that eat something totally different.
The lorikeet, native to Australia, drinks nectar from flowers.
It has a bristly tongue adapted to get a sweet meal.
A few other parrots eat bugs.
There's also parrots that are mostly solitary like the kakapo.
So, take all these as guidelines.
So now you know a few simple rules to determine if a bird is a parrot.
If you'd like me to answer any animal questions in a future video, please put it in the comments.
See you next time!