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50 free Parrot trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Parrots are the smartest, longest-lived and most exploited birds on the planet, and this quiz covers all three. It starts with the order: roughly 410 species in four families, from a pygmy parrot lighter than a coin to the metre-long hyacinth macaw and the 4-kg kākāpō; where they live, why a third are threatened, and how they crack seeds, climb with their beaks as a third limb, and see in ultraviolet. Then the famous individuals and the culture around them: Alex, the grey parrot who grasped the idea of zero and whose last words were 'You be good'; Puck, the budgie with a 1,728-word vocabulary; Cookie, the cockatoo who outlived every animal in his zoo; N'kisi and his thousand words; Sirocco the kākāpō who became a Slack emoji; the kea that hunts sheep; the pirate's shoulder-parrot; the Dead Parrot sketch; and the sisserou on Dominica's flag. Easy questions ask what parrots eat and which pet parrot is the most popular; hard ones want syrinx anatomy, fossil dates and CITES exemptions. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on parrots and the individual birds involved, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Our Birds and Toucan quizzes go wider.
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Q 01Roughly how many parrot species are there?
About 410
They fall into 101 genera and four families, with the richest variety in South America and Australasia.
Q 02What fraction of parrot species are threatened with extinction?
One third
That is a higher aggregate extinction risk than any comparable group of birds, driven by trapping and habitat loss.
Q 03Along with parrots, which other bird group is considered the most intelligent?
Corvids such as crows and jays
Parrots' ability to imitate human speech has made them pets since ancient times.
Q 04As of 2021, roughly how many parrots live in captivity, about half of all those alive?
50,000,000
Parrots are subjected to more exploitation than any other group of wild birds; most captives are household pets.
Q 05Parrots are the only creatures to display true tripedalism, meaning what?
Using beak and neck as a third limb
When climbing, the beak pulls with as much force as a primate's arm; researchers call the gait 'beakiation'.
Q 06Molecular studies suggest parrots evolved about 59 million years ago on which ancient supercontinent?
Gondwana
That fits their diversity in South America and Australasia, though the fossil record is oddly richer in the north.
Q 07Genomic analysis shows parrots are the sister group of which lineage?
The passerines, or perching birds
Together they form the clade Psittacopasserae, whose next-nearest relatives are the falcons.
Q 08What older English word for a parrot was first used in the 1500s?
Popinjay
The scientific name Psittacus goes back to Ctesias in the 5th century BC, borrowed from an Indian name for a parakeet.
Q 09Which parrot family holds the cockatoos?
Cacatuidae
Cockatoos alone have a movable crest and lack the Dyck-texture feathers that give other parrots their vivid colours.
Q 10What is the smallest species in the order Psittaciformes?
The buff-faced pygmy parrot
It weighs under 10 grams and measures 8 cm; the biggest species reach a metre in length and 4 kg in weight.
Q 11Which is the longest parrot, at about a metre?
Hyacinth macaw
The heaviest is New Zealand's ground-dwelling kākāpō at around 4 kg.
Q 12A big macaw's bite force is about 35 kg per square centimetre, close to that of what?
A large dog
The upper mandible is not fused to the skull, which lets it move independently and adds to the crushing power.
Q 13Touch receptors along the inner edges of a parrot's beak are known collectively as what?
The bill tip organ
They allow the fine manipulation that lets a parrot rotate a seed and peel off its husk.
Q 21Why do many parrots in the Americas, Africa and New Guinea eat clay?
It releases minerals and absorbs toxins
Seeds are often chemically defended, so parrots strip coats and husks and then swallow clay as an antidote.
Q 22The kea has been recorded, uncommonly, hunting which large animal?
Adult sheep
Sheep farmers once had a bounty on it; the golden-winged parakeet, by contrast, preys on water snails.
Q 23Which parrots, unusually, build stick nests in trees rather than using cavities?
Monk parakeets and some lovebirds
Q 14Unlike humans, parrot vision is sensitive to what?
Ultraviolet light
Some species even show sexual differences in plumage that only appear in the ultraviolet.
Q 15Studies of Australian parrots showed they exhibit what human-like trait when picking up food?
Handedness, or footedness
Adults are almost exclusively left-footed or right-footed, with the split varying by species.
Q 16What is the predominant plumage colour among parrots?
Green
Cockatoos buck the trend, being mostly black or white with touches of red, pink or yellow.
Q 17Which species is the most striking exception to the rule that male and female parrots look alike?
The eclectus
Males are green and females red; the difference is so stark they were once thought to be separate species.
Q 18Which now-extinct parrot once lived as far north as the southern United States?
Carolina parakeet
The thick-billed parrot and green parakeet have also reached the US; today feral monk parakeets thrive even in New York City.
Q 19Which is the only parrot that lives in an alpine climate?
The kea
It is endemic to the Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island, and has been filmed making and using tools.
Q 20How many parrot species are truly migratory?
Three, all Australian
Most other species just make poorly understood regional wanderings, and some are entirely nomadic.
A few ground parrots of Australasia nest on the ground; almost everyone else uses a hollow.
Q 24Parrots have no vocal cords; they make sound with which organ?
The syrinx
It sits at the base of the trachea, and parrots share a learned vocal repertoire only with hummingbirds and songbirds.
Q 25Alex, the bird studied for 30 years by Irene Pepperberg, was which species?
A grey parrot
'Alex' stood for avian language (or learning) experiment; Pepperberg bought him at a pet shop aged about one.
Q 26In 2005 Pepperberg reported that Alex understood which mathematical concept?
Zero
Asked the difference between two identical objects he answered 'None'; he could count and label colours and shapes.
Q 27What were Alex the parrot's last words?
'You be good'
He was found dead in his cage in September 2007 aged 31, with a vocabulary of over 100 words he seemed to understand.
Q 28Which grey parrot has been reported to have a vocabulary of around a thousand words?
N'kisi
He has been said to invent words in context and use correct tenses.
Q 29Puck, the bird with the largest recorded vocabulary at 1,728 words, was what kind of parrot?
A budgerigar
He died in 1994 and entered Guinness World Records the following year; his owner was American Camille Jordan.
Q 30Which is the most popular pet bird species of all?
The budgerigar
Budgies are said to be the third most popular pet in the world after dogs and cats.