{"id":13330,"date":"2015-12-16T07:20:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T07:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/?p=13330"},"modified":"2025-08-07T21:37:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T02:37:50","slug":"13330-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/13330-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How Smart Are Parrots? They Use Tools Too!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Vasa
Photo from 4028mdk09<\/a>, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of us who share a home with a pet parrot<\/a> know firsthand that “bird-brained” should mean the exact opposite of its dictionary definition … words like “ditzy,” “scatterbrained” or “stupid” certainly don’t describe most parrots.\u00a0Studies on parrot intelligence say otherwise too.<\/p>\n

Case in point, researchers from the\u00a0University of York and University of St. Andrews spent months documenting the behavior of\u00a010\u00a0captive greater vasa parrots<\/a>\u00a0(Coracopsis vasa<\/em>) and found that the birds used makeshift tools to extract calcium from seashells. This is being touted as the first documentation of nonhuman use of tools for grinding. Not only that, the birds also demonstrated sharing tools with one another.<\/p>\n

Half of the birds used a pebble or date pit to grind against inside the inside of a shell, or to break pieces off the shell. The birds seemed especially fond of crushing the shells in early spring, just prior to the start of breeding season, when the need for calcium supplementation would be at its highest.\u00a0Researchers were scratching their heads when they noticed that the male vasa parrots were more likely to crush up the shells. However, they theorize that since male birds often regurgitate to females as part of their courtship behavior, they were potentially giving the females a calcium boost. Read more about the study and see a video of vasa parrots using tools.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Vasa parrots<\/a> have some notable physical and behavior quirks that are unique among\u00a0parrots. The vasa chicks’ incubation period is the shortest of\u00a0parrots, and female vasas have been known to mate with different males, which is not the norm. Perhaps the strangest quirks occur during breeding season.The male vasa parrot’s cloaca prolapses (drops from its normal inside-the-body position) and becomes a hemipenis up to 2 inches in length.\u00a0The female changes color, going from a smoky gray to a light brown. Then she loses her head feathers and has a bald, yellow head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research on Vasa parrots from the University of York and University of St. Andrews that point to the first documentation of nonhuman use of tools for grinding, and one of only a few reports of nonhuman animals sharing tools directly. See the Vasa parrots\u2019 tool of choice to grind calcium powder from shells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behavior"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Smart Are Parrots? They Use Tools Too! – Pet Birds by Lafeber Co.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Research on Vasa parrots point to the first documentation of nonhuman use of tools for grinding, and one of only a few reports of nonhuman animals sharing tools directly.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lafeber.com\/pet-birds\/13330-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Smart Are Parrots? 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She has authored a multitude of articles covering all aspects of pet birds and their care, and has had the opportunity to interview world-renowned avian behaviorists, veterinarians, aviculturists, researchers and conservationists. Her journey in the bird world has taken her to the remote areas of Brazil to see hyacinth macaws in their native habitat, as well as on bird-watching trips to Spain, Puerto Rico and Mexico. She is especially thankful to have met so many passionate pet bird owners throughout her years at the helm of Bird Talk magazine. Her interest in pet birds started at the age of 9, when she saved up her penny collection to buy Elvis, her cockatiel companion of 22 years. Little did she know then that her love of birds would some day lead to a career in which being chased by a cockatoo during a photo-shoot, having a 5-minute phone conversation with a reader\u2019s African grey parrot, hand-wrestling a caique to get her pilfered ring back and having her work desk \u201cre-decorated\u201d by a visiting Amazon parrot were all just another day at the office. She has a degree in English from the University of California, Davis.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/pet-birds\\\/author\\\/laura\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lafeber.com\\\/pet-birds\\\/author\\\/laura\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Smart Are Parrots? 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