Word Finder - parrots

definition

A kind of bird, many species of which are colourful and able to mimic human speech, of the order Psittaciformes or (narrowly) of the family Psittacidae.

example

I bought a wonderful parrot at the pet store.

synonyms

• popinjay
• psittacine

definition

A parroter; a person who repeats the words or ideas of others.

example

What kind of a parrot are you? He just said that.

synonyms

• copycat
• mimic

definition

A puffin.

synonyms

• sea-parrot
• tomnoddy

definition

Channel coal.

definition

A transponder.

definition

To repeat (exactly what has just been said) without necessarily showing understanding, in the manner of a parrot.

example

The interviewee merely parroted the views of her tabloid.

The birds of paradise, the racquet-tailed kingfishers, Tanysiptera, the largest and smallest of parrots, Calyptorhynchus and Nasiterna, and the great crowned pigeons, Goura, are very characteristic; and so are the various Megapodes.

The first volume of a Histoire naturelle des perroquets, a companion work by the same author, appeared in the same year, and is truly a monograph, since the parrots constitute a family of birds so naturally severed from all others that there has rarely been anything else confounded with them.

Of birds some 30 kinds are known, an owl being the only bird of prey; parrots, pigeons, kingfishers, honey-suckers, rails, ducks, and other water birds are numerous.

The Phasianidae (exclusive of true Phasianus) are highly characteristic of this region, as are likewise certain genera of barbets (Megalaeraa), parrots (Palaeornis), and crows (Dendrocitta, Urocissa and Cissa).

This condition occurs in the Ratitae as well as in the well-flying Platyrcecinae amongst parrots.

Still De Blainville made some advance in a right direction, as for instance by elevating the parrots' and the pigeons as " Ordres," equal in rank to that of the birds of prey and some others.

Next he places the parrots (q.v.), and then the vast assemblage of " Passereaux "- which he declares to be all of one type, even genera like Pipra (manakin, q.v.) and Pitta - and concludes with the somewhat heterogeneous conglomeration of forms, beginning with Cypselus (swift, q.v.), that so many systematists have been accustomed to call Picariae, though to them as a group he assigns no name.

The other birds include parrots, toucans, gaudily coloured cuckoos, lories, swallows, shrikes, sun-birds, kingfishers, weavers, finches, wild pigeons and crows.

The commonest birds are pigeons (the large notou and other varieties), doves, parrots, kingfishers and ducks.

Parakeet (spelt in various ways in English) is usually applied to the smaller kinds of Parrots, especially those which have long tails, not as Perroquet in French, which is used as a general term for all Parrots, Perruche, or sometimes Perriche, being the ordinary name for what we call Parakeet.

In continental Asia the distribution of parrots is rather remarkable.

In South America the species of parrots, though numerically nearly as abundant, are far less diversified in form, and all of them seem capable of being referred to two, or, at most, three sections.

The headquarters of parrots are in the Australian Region and the Malay countries; they are abundant in South America; in Africa and India the number of forms is relatively small; in Europe and North Asia there are none now alive, in North America only one.

With the decline of the Roman Empire the demand for parrots in Europe lessened, and so the supply dwindled, yet all knowledge of them was not wholly lost, and they are occasionally mentioned by one writer or another until in the i 5th century began that career of geographical discovery which has since proceeded uninterruptedly.

Yet so numerous is the group that even now new species of parrots are not uncommonly recognized.

The home of the vast majority of parrot-forms is unquestionably within the tropics, but the popular belief that parrots are tropical birds only is a great mistake.

No parrot has recently inhabited the Palaearctic Region,' and but one (the Conurus carolinensis, just mentioned) probably belongs to the Nearctic; nor are parrots represented by many different forms in either the Ethiopian or the Indian Regions.

Parrots are gregarious and usually feed and roost in companies, but are at least temporarily monogamous.

The food is varied but chiefly vegetable, whilst parrots are alone amongst birds in holding the food in the claws.

Of birds, several parrots and other genera are characteristically Papuan and are unknown east of the Solomons.

There are no parrots.

Unfortunately it does not seem to share the longevity characteristic of most parrots, and none that has been held in confinement appears to have long survived, while many succumb speedily.

Of birds, parrots are the most characteristic. Insect life is abundant.

Caymans, water-hogs (capinchos), several kinds of deer (Cervus paludosus the largest), ounces, opossums, armadillos, vampires, the American ostrich, the ibis, the jabiru, various species popularly called partridges, the pato real or royal duck, the Palamedea cornuta, parrots and parakeets, are among the more notable forms. Insect life is peculiarly abundant; the red stump-like ant-hills are a feature in every landscape, and bees used to be kept in all the mission villages.

But the first Greek historian who speaks clearly of India was Hecataeus of Miletus (549-486 B.C.); the knowledge of Herodotus (450 B.C.) ended at the Indus; and Ctesias, the physician (401 B.C.), brought back from his residence in Persia only a few facts about the products of India, its dyes and fabrics, its monkeys and parrots.

There may also be mentioned 21 cuckoos, I cockatoo, 20 parrots and parakeets, 20 woodpeckers, barbets, broadbills, starlings, orioles, weaver-finches, larks, nuthatches, 28 beautifully coloured sun-birds, and 23 flower-peckers, titmice, shrikes, swallow-shrikes, tailor-birds, thrushes, fruit-thrushes, fairy blue-birds, fire-birds, 42 fly-catchers, 4 swallows, and 5 species of most beautifully coloured ant-thrushes, as well as a large number of birds for which English names cannot be readily supplied.

Green and grey parrots, ravens, swallows and magpies are also common.

The most important are eagles, kites, vultures, falcons, owls, horn-bills, cranes, pheasants (notably the argus, fire-back and peacock-pheasants), partridges, ravens, crows, parrots, pigeons, woodpeckers, doves, snipe, quail and swallows.

In the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for 1868 (p. 381) is a most interesting account, by Charles Buxton, of the naturalization of parrots at Northreps Hall, Norfolk.

A considerable number of African and Amazonian parrots, Bengal parroquets, four species of white and rose crested cockatoos, and two species of crimson lories, remained at large for many years.

Similarly the recent experience of zoological gardens, particularly in the case of parrots and monkeys, shows that, excluding draughts, exposure to changes of temperature without artificial heat is markedly beneficial as compared with the older method of strict protection from cold.

There has also been very little naturalization of parrots, but the rosella parrakeet of Australia (Platycercus eximius) is being propagated by escaped captives in the north island of New Zealand, and its ally the mealy rosella (P. pallidiceps) is locally wild in Hawaii, the stock in this case having descended from a single pair intentionally liberated.

Parrots are found as far south as Tierra del Fuego, where Darwin saw them feeding on seeds of the Winter's bark.

The parrots are restricted to parrakeets, of which there are several species, and a single small lory.

Many species of humming-birds are found even far up in the mountains, and great numbers of parrots, araras and toucans, beautiful of feather but harsh of voice, enliven the forests of the lowlands.

Among the birds, parrots (especially the grey variety) are common, as are storks and ibises.

Parrots and paroquets are numerous everywhere in the tropical and subtropical regions, as also the gorgeously coloured macaw and awkward toucan.

Parrots are rarely seen.

The Papuan comb is characteristic. This is a long piece of bamboo split at one end into prongs, while the other projects beyond the forehead sometimes two feet or more, and into it are stuck the bright feathers of parrots and other birds.

Many of the smaller birds, such as the sun-birds, bee-eaters, the parrots and halcyons, as well as the larger plantain-eaters, are noted for the brilliance of their plumage.

Examples include mink, signal crayfish, common carp and plants such a Himalayan balsam, New Zealand pigmy weed and parrots feather.

They were a key part of men's clothing and were usually made out of parrots, macaws and harpy eagles ' feathers.

These included hummingbirds, parrots, tyrant flycatchers, tanagers, warblers and especially orioles.

Himalayan balsam, New Zealand pigmy weed and parrots feather.

The collection includes a vast range of birds from tiny finches to giant ostriches and talking parrots to diving penguins.

We are thinking of going for a few days jaunt to buy parrots in Spain!

Like much of the wildlife of Madagascar, the vasa parrots ' future is uncertain mainly due to the loss of natural habitat.

Exeter Ship Canal Two alien weeds, parrots feather and floating marsh pennywort, have invaded Exeter Ship Canal.

Wildlife is plentiful and includes the spider monkey, tree porcupine, parrots and hummingbirds.

Two drunken sailors in the audience last night said their singing sounded like a couple of parrots fighting.