International holidays - World Parrot Day

Macaws, cockatoos, loris, cockatiels, grays, ecleptus, kakapo All these are breeds of exotic birds that live in tropical and subtropical conditions Some species of parrots, such as budgerigars, kakariki and amazon, get along well with humans Beautiful and intelligent birds, mostly found in forests, mountainous and steppe regions of Australia and South America, need protection May 31 is World Parrot Day World Parrot Day was first celebrated in 2004 The initiator of the appearance of the solemn day in the calendar is the World Parrot Foundation, a charitable organization whose headquarters are located in the UK Since 1989, the World Parrot Trust has funded conservation, research and education programs to protect parrots in the wild and at home In order to support these projects, the foundation has collected more than $2 million over the years of its existence The funds were spent on helping 88 species of birds affected by poaching and violation of their natural habitat Almost all exotic birds are herbivores However, the diet of kea, which lives in the cool mountains of New Zealand, includes not only cereals and fruits, but also lamb In the wild, they hunt, attacking large animals without a second thought The strength of representatives of the parrot order cannot be underestimated So, a cockatoo with its 10 cm long beak can easily bite a person’s finger The largest parrots, up to 1 m tall, live in the Amazon, and the smallest, with a body length of 8-9 cm, live in Papua New Guinea Small birds, both in captivity and in the wild, live 15-20 years, and large birds live 100 years The parrot was domesticated about 3 thousand years ago Many birds that live with humans delight with their talkativeness and talent for imitating the timbre and intonation of the owner’s voice, the noise that household appliances make, and other sounds Few people know that these birds do not have vocal cords They produce all sounds using their beak and tongue For thousands of years, parrots have never ceased to amaze people not only with their color, but also with their cheerful disposition and intelligence Ornithologists come to the conclusion that scientists do not know everything about the intellectual abilities and prospects for the development of the speech apparatus of birds The world's smartest gray parrot named Alex is listed in the Guinness Book of Records The bird, raised by a psychologist in Arizona, knew more than 400 words Alex, who lived for 31 years, could correctly name the colors and shapes of objects, read syllables and count The parrot expressed his thoughts and feelings using words His level of intelligence corresponded to the development of a 5-year-old child The phenomenal abilities of another genius, the budgerigar Puck, who knew 1,728 words, were also reflected in the Guinness Book of Records Many of the more than 390 species of Psittaidae are threatened with extinction To successfully observe birds, a person not only needs to find an approach to them, but also create comfortable living conditions and create the right diet Birds living in mountains and tropical forests can be saved by preserving their natural habitat World Parrot Day calls on all concerned people to do this