The grey parrot, often called the African grey, is famous as one of the smartest birds on Earth and a remarkable talker. It is a medium-size gray parrot with a bright red tail, native to the rainforests of equatorial Africa. In the US it is known only as a pet, with no wild population.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About 13 in (33 cm) long and roughly 14 oz (400 g). Gray overall with a darker head and wings, a bare white face, black bill, and red tail. Young birds have dark eyes that turn yellow in adults.
- Voice
- Noisiest at dawn and dusk; two wild birds recorded at a roost produced more than 200 distinct calls. Captive birds are superb mimics of speech.
Look-alikes
Timneh parrotPsittacus timneh
Smaller and darker gray, with a dull maroon tail instead of crimson and a pale, horn-colored patch on the upper bill. It lives farther west, in West Africa.
Why they get mixed upIt was treated as the same species until a 2007 study, and is also gray with a reddish tail.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- lowland rainforest
- forest edges
- mangroves
- Range
- Equatorial Africa from eastern Ivory Coast to Kenya, plus Príncipe island. Escaped or released birds have been seen in South Florida since at least 1984, with no evidence of breeding.
- Seasonal presence
- Resident; in West Africa some birds leave the driest areas in the dry season.
Behavior
- Diet
- Mostly fruit, nuts, and seeds, especially oil palm fruit; also some flowers, bark, insects, and snails. Often feeds on the ground.
- Social life
- Shy but highly social in the wild. Flocks split up to forage by day and gather at big communal roosts, often over water or on river islands.
- Senses
- Some solve tasks at the level of a 4- to 6-year-old child. Irene Pepperberg's parrot Alex learned to name objects, colors, and shapes and to count.
Life cycle
- Nest
- Tree cavities, one pair per tree; pairs mate for life.
- Clutch size
- 3–5 eggs
- Incubation
- About 30 days; the female sits while the male feeds her.
- Fledging
- Leaves the nest at about 12 weeks; parents keep caring for the young afterward.
- Lifespan
- About 23 years in the wild; 40–60 years in captivity.
Name and classification
- About the name
- The smaller, darker Timneh parrot was long treated as a subspecies but has been considered a separate species since a 2007 study. Checklists differ on whether the Príncipe bird belongs to this species or to the Timneh.
- Varieties and forms
- Breeders have produced partly or fully red birds, such as the "Red Factor" type.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- ENEndangeredVery high risk of extinction in the wild
- Status
- Moved to Appendix I in 2016 (in effect 2017), banning commercial international trade in wild-caught birds.
- Threats
- Trapping for the pet trade and forest loss. Ghana's population is reported to have fallen 90–99% since 1992.
More species to explore
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