Pet Birds

Caiques are stocky Amazon parrots that hop, wrestle and sleep on their backs. Here is what they cost, how long they live, how loud they get and who they actually suit.

The most affectionate parrot most people meet, and the reason rescues are full of them. Size, noise, diet, health and the honest price of an umbrella cockatoo.

Quaker parrots talk better than almost any small parrot, live 25 years, and are banned in several states. What to know before you buy one.

A sun conure lives 25 to 30 years and screams like a smoke alarm. What the bird costs, how loud it really gets, whether it talks, and what a day of care takes.

A pineapple conure is a green-cheek conure carrying the cinnamon and yellow-sided mutations. Here is what the morph costs, how long it lives, and whether it talks.

Everything to know before getting a cockatiel: temperament, the 3-3-3 rule, diet, cage setup, cost, and common health issues.

In the US a parakeet means a budgerigar. What size cage they actually need, why seed diets shorten their lives, one bird or two, and the real cost of setting up.

A female cockatiel has tail barring and a grey face, but colour mutations hide it entirely. How to sex one, why egg laying is the main health risk, and how she differs from a male.

A baby parrot is called a chick and needs weeks to months before weaning. Realistic costs, why buying unweaned chicks is dangerous, and what a parrot really commits you to.

A group of parrots is called a pandemonium. Where Milton’s word came from, why parrots genuinely do flock unlike most birds with dramatic names, and how flocks work.