Wild Facts

Photo by Ginkgo100 (Wikimedia)

For some strange reason, I had a desire to write about a bird today, however, I had a tough time deciding which one.  Then I stumbled across the Macaw and just felt compelled to look a little closer at this birds life.  Now, I know it is just another parrot species but the Macaw does have some unusual characteristics that I think you might find entertaining.  Besides, I don’t want to hurt the poor birds feelings by leaving them out of Wild Facts.

As mentioned the Macaw is a parrot species and just happens to be one of the largest parrot species out there.  Believe it or not the Macaw is capable of growing to over 1 m (3′) in height, which is pretty astounding if you stop to think about that.  Actually when you do think about it, these birds are like a giant rainbow since their feathers come in a variety of colours including red, blue, green and of course yellow. Unfortunately there is no pot of gold at the end of a Macaw though.

Photo by Jen Smith (Wikimedia)

Like other parrots the Macaw is also a very sociable bird that likes to hang out with their friends.  Even though they are sociable, you won’t find the Macaw checking out other mates.  Nope, this particular bird just happens to be one of the animals out there that mate for life.  Isn’t it sweet when a bird finds love at first sight and never lets her go. A pair of Macaws are like a little family since they will do anything for each other such as sharing their food, grooming each other, and the female even lets the male think he is right sometimes.  Now that is love!  While the female is incubating her eggs the male will go out and look for food for both of them.  Luckily the female only has to eat fast food and Chinese takeout for approximately one month before the eggs hatch.

Macaw Fast Fact – The Macaw has become popular in the pet trade despite most of the Macaw species being endangered or extinct (obviously the extinct ones don’t make good pets anymore).  So if you happen to be looking on the Black Market for something and you see a Macaw…make sure you tell the vendor that they are endangered and shouldn’t be selling them.

Okay, that is all I have on the Macaw for today.  I hope you enjoyed our latest Wild Fact and I will see you tomorrow.

Photo by Peter Fuchs (Wikimedia)

Today’s Wild Fact is really going to go to the birds.  Of course, I mean this literally as we are talking about one of the smartest birds I know, the African Grey Parrot.  Okay, so maybe I don’t really know them but I know of them so that has to count for something.  I am guessing by now you realized these Parrots can be found in the rain-forests of west and central Africa.  You have probably also noticed that these Parrots are not nearly as colourful as their more common Parrot cousins.  This doesn’t make them any less spectacular though.

I wasn’t kidding when I said the African Grey Parrot was one of the smartest birds I know.  In fact, scientists actually believe this particular Parrot to be one of the most intelligent bird species found on our little planet.  Now I am not saying I would copy off these guys during exam time.  Let’s face it, they are still birds. So what makes the Grey Parrot more intelligent than other birds?  Like other Parrots, the African Grey Parrot is capable of imitating human speech.  In fact, this particular sub-species is known to be the best at imitating humans.  Believe it or not one captive Grey Parrot, N’kisi, was believed to have a vocabulary of over 950 words! That bird has a larger vocabulary than I do.

Photo by Snowmanradio (Wikimedia)

Besides being able to imitate humans (and other birds, which is unique among wild Parrots), the African Grey Parrot is capable of associating these words with their meanings.  That’s right, they aren’t just repeating what they hear but they actually understand what the words mean.  They are also able to understand the concepts of colours, shapes, numbers, etc.  Incredibly, these simple birds have been known to complete cognitive tasks equivalent to that of dolphins, chimpanzees and even toddlers.  Yep, your pet Grey Parrot is just as intelligent as your 2 year old kid.

African Grey Parrot Fast Fact – Just to illustrate how intelligent the African Grey Parrot is, I wanted to share a quick story with you.  I am sure all of you have heard of Jane Goodall, famous for her work with chimpanzees.  Well, when she went to visit N’kisi (remember the bird with the large vocabulary) the Parrot greeted her by saying “Got a Chimp?”.  Believe it or not N’kisi had seen pictures of Jane Goodall with Chimpanzees and put the two together when he greeted her.  Just one example of how they actually understand the meaning of the words they speak.  Pretty impressive, right?

I couldn’t possibly write a whole fact about the amazing talking Grey Parrot without including a short video clip.  If you want to be impressed today then check out Einstein the African Grey Parrot below.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

We keep talking about species of Australia and I feel bad for the beautiful country just south east of Australia. I am of course talking about New Zealand!  It looks like a great place to find intriguing animals yet it seems like we hardly talk about it.  Today is going to change all of that as we are going to discuss the Kakapo which in the wild is only found in New Zealand.

Oh, so what is a Kakapo!  Well, obviously it is a bird!  Didn’t you look at the picture above? Okay, I will stop being a smart alec. The kakapo is a flightless, nocturnal parrot. In fact it is the largest species of Parrot in the world, weighing between 2-4 kg (4.5-9 lbs).  It is the only parrot species that I know of which is flightless and nocturnal.  This is a very interesting bird.

Unfortunately, the kakapo is critically endangered with only 125 living birds left in the wild.  The kakapo use to flourish in New Zealand since they didn’t have to worry about mammalian predators back in the day. Without having any predators, the kakapo had no need to evolve any self-defense mechanisms.  The absence of these mammalian predators may also be the reason why this particular bird evolved to be flightless.  There was just no need for them to worry about being eaten.  Once mammals starting being introduced to the islands of New Zealand, these defenseless birds were no match for the predators.  I guess you could say it was like taking candy from a baby.  Today, efforts have been made to transfer some of these endangered but maginificent bird species to islands lacking mammalian predators.  The way I see it is that those 120 birds had better find a shortcut to evolution if they want to remain living in this world.

Well folks, today was just a quick Fact about the Kakapo.  I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you again tomorrow.