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Hi my name is Madeline Franco and I am here to talk about birds, specifically parrots
and more specifically than that different species of parrots. There are well over 300
different species of parrots in the world. Some are called old world parrots which hale
from Africa, Australia, and points west of the United States and others are new world
parrots primarily from South and Central America. Many of the parrots from old word are called
cockatoos and you've seen them I'm sure. They are white in color, many of them, some of
them are black and some of them are pink. The pink ones are even known as white cockatoos
because anything other than black seems to be white. The South American birds and Central
American birds tend to be rather colorful. The African parrots by in large a lot of them
are fairly dull in color such as the African Gray and the Vosa parrot. Many of these are
suitable as pets and a lot of them are found in our culture. This over here is a kiek.
This is Kiki. She is a kiek. They are from South America. She is a small parrot, very
suitable as a pet. She lives to play and plays to live and a very companionable little bird.
These are old world parrots from the Solomon Islands primarily Indonesia and this is the
male of the Eclectus parrot and that is the female. These are dimorphic. Other birds,
the typical parrot is a, the typical parrot that you see with the long tail is from South
American primarily and Central America and they are Macaws. This here is a parrot that
at one time was indigenous to the Western United States. They are having a hard time
surviving there though because of the predator population. They are found in the Sierras
of Mexico and it is called a thick built parrot. You cannot buy one of these. This one was
given to me as a gift because I do presentations at schools and a friend of mine gave me this
bird. It is a wonderful little bird but again they are not available in aviculture because
they are restricted. Many of the parrots that we see today are endangered in their environment,
their natural environments but they are bred widely in aviculture and in many instances
aviculture is help keeping those species alive. Several of them have actually dwindled to
frightening numbers in their natural environment due to deforestation and I guess you would
call it encroachment by man. But hopefully we've got some good conservation programs
going and many of them will increase in numbers. We have had great success with the Blue Throated
Macaw and some of the other birds that used to be and still are quite endangered but they
are coming around. If you are considering getting a parrot, I would suggest that you
get a book or do a lot of studying before you make that decision. It is a big decision
to have a bird as a pet, a parrot as a pet. They are long lived. It is not uncommon for
them to live 30 to 50 years in captivity so they are a lot of fun. They are very intelligent,
long lived and they make great pets but it is a major responsibility when you decide
to have one.