Which parrots can raise a crest, and why do many eat clay? These parrot questions for a trivia night fill five rounds, from popinjay to World Parrot Day.
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Five rounds, from popinjay to the kea
Names, families and fossils meets Ctesias, Gondwana and a bill that may be a dinosaur's. Bills, feet and feathers measures a macaw's bite and names beakiation. Food, nests and young eats clay and nests in a termite mound. Voices, wits and long lives asks how a bird with no vocal cords talks. Places and people flies from Dominica's flag to a jade parrot.
For a bird club evening or an aviary visit
Every question carries four choices. Tap one: the card marks it, explains in one sentence and links the article. Stop after a set of ten, or let Scored round run twenty questions with no marks shown until the end.
Questions and answers
How do parrots talk?
Parrots have no vocal cords. The sound is made in the syrinx, where air is forced across the opening of the windpipe, and the bird alters it by changing the windpipe's depth and shape.
What do parrots eat?
Mostly plants: seeds, nuts, fruit and buds. Lories and lorikeets are specialized for nectar and soft fruit, and a few species sometimes eat animals.
How long do parrots live?
It depends on size. Lifespans of 80 years have been reported for some large cockatoos, amazons and macaws. Small parrots such as lovebirds and budgies live up to 15 to 20 years.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Parrot, linked under every question. Species counts, trade figures and laws, named pet parrots, and advice on keeping parrots are left out.
A bill fragment from Wyoming, once thought to be the oldest parrot fossil, may instead come from what?Answer: A dinosaur with a birdlike beak. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Besides the kea and the kākāpō, which is the third living parrot of the New Zealand group?Answer: The kākā. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
The family Strigopidae holds the parrots of which country?Answer: New Zealand. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Genomic analysis shows parrots to be the sister group of which birds?Answer: The passerines. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
On which continent were the first uncontroversial parrot fossils, about 50 million years old, found?Answer: Europe. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
The spread of parrots in South America and Australasia suggests the order evolved on which ancient landmass?Answer: Gondwana. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which Greek writer of the 5th century BCE recorded the name Psittacus for a bird of India?Answer: Ctesias. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which is the smallest living parrot, at under 10 grams?Answer: The buff-faced pygmy parrot. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which older word for a parrot was first used in English in the 1500s?Answer: Popinjay. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which order do the parrots make up?Answer: Psittaciformes. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which parrot, at one meter, is the longest of the living species?Answer: The hyacinth macaw. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which small parrot is the only species of its subfamily among the cockatoos?Answer: The cockatiel. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Bills, feet and feathers 14
A study of Australian parrots found that adults show which preference, much as people do with hands?Answer: Being left-footed or right-footed. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
The bite force of a large macaw is close to that of which animal?Answer: A large dog. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
How are the toes of a parrot's feet arranged?Answer: Two forward and two back. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
How do parrots often walk on the ground?Answer: With a rolling gait. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Male and female parrots usually look alike. Which species is the most striking exception?Answer: The eclectus parrot. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Unlike human vision, the vision of parrots is also sensitive to which kind of light?Answer: Ultraviolet. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What do the tongues of lories and lorikeets have for collecting nectar and pollen?Answer: Brush tips. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What is the bill tip organ of a parrot?Answer: Touch receptors along the inner edges of the bill. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What is the predominant color of plumage in parrots?Answer: Green. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What is unusual about the upper bill of a parrot?Answer: It is not fused to the skull and moves on its own. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
When they climb, what do parrots use as a third limb?Answer: Their beaks. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which parrots can raise and retract a crest of feathers on the top of the head?Answer: Cockatoos. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which pigment gives many parrot feathers their color and helps them resist a feather-degrading bacterium?Answer: Psittacofulvin. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which word has been coined for a parrot's use of its beak to move along branches?Answer: Beakiation. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Food, nests and young 11
In several parrot species, the young of several broods gather in what?Answer: Crèches. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Only three species of parrot are migratory. On which continent do all three live?Answer: Australia. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What color are the eggs of parrots?Answer: White. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What is the most important food of most true parrots and cockatoos?Answer: Seeds. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
When a parrot is seen eating fruit, what is it often really after?Answer: The seed inside. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Where do almost all parrots nest?Answer: In tree hollows and other cavities. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which insects' nests do many parrot species use as nesting sites?Answer: Termites. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which parakeet is one of the few parrots that build nests in trees?Answer: The monk parakeet. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which parrot nests in colonies up to 70,000 strong?Answer: The burrowing parrot. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which unusual prey do golden-winged parakeets take?Answer: Water snails. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Why do many parrots in the Americas, Africa and Papua New Guinea eat clay?Answer: It releases minerals and absorbs toxic compounds from the gut. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Voices, wits and long lives 10
After the gray parrots, which parrots are generally regarded as the next-best imitators and speakers?Answer: The amazon parrots. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
The brain-to-body size ratio of parrots and crows is comparable to that of which animals?Answer: Higher primates. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
How long have some large parrots, such as big cockatoos, amazons and macaws, been reported to live?Answer: 80 years. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Parrots imitate human speech without which part that people use to speak?Answer: Vocal cords. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Parrots share the name of most intelligent birds with which family?Answer: The crow family. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What does the British expression sick as a parrot describe?Answer: Extreme disappointment. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
What does the verb to parrot mean?Answer: To repeat by rote. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which parrots are known for their superior ability to imitate sounds and human speech?Answer: Gray parrots. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which small parrot is the most popular of all pet bird species?Answer: The budgerigar. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Young vasa parrots kept in small cages with which birds took on some of their behavior?Answer: Chickens. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Places and people 10
A jade parrot was recovered from the tomb of Fu Hao. To which ancient Chinese dynasty does it belong?Answer: The Shang. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
A parrot appears on the flag of which Caribbean country?Answer: Dominica. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Around which large island are lories and lorikeets most diverse?Answer: New Guinea. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
In which decade did escaped parrots first begin breeding in cities in California, Texas and Florida?Answer: The 1950s. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
On which date is World Parrot Day celebrated each year?Answer: May 31. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which explorer recorded red shining-parrots in Tonga in the 1770s?Answer: Captain Cook. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which is the only parrot that lives in alpine climates?Answer: The kea. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which parrot, like the green parakeet and the extinct Carolina parakeet, has lived as far north as the southern United States?Answer: The thick-billed parrot. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which Persian poet told the story of the merchant and the parrot in the Masnavi?Answer: Rumi. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
Which Roman author of the first century described pet birds that match the rose-ringed parakeet?Answer: Pliny the Elder. Source: Wikipedia: Parrot
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Parrot. On October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in that article before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: counts of species and of parrots in captivity, extinction and trade figures, trade laws and court cases, advice on keeping parrots, named pet and laboratory parrots, living researchers, films, sketches and fan names, and the passages on living faiths. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the animal, hard will stump most tables. Unofficial, and not advice on keeping, feeding or approaching an animal. Licence: own work