Species Spotlight: Meyers Parrot

Let’s learn more about Meyers parrots, the smallest of the Poicephalus parrots. They have the widest range of habitat out of any African parrot.

When studied in the wild, meyers parrots were generally seen flying only in pairs or groups up to about 4, which suggests they do not participate in large scale flocking when foraging, but stick to pairs or family units. But when they are eating and foraging, there are a lot of vocalizations because they have a strong social system. At night, all the pairs and family units fly back to the communal roosting tree with the rest of the flock. The communal roosting tree does change based on food availability, so they may not always return to the same tree. Most parrots will come together at night to form a large flock in a tree to be safer from predation.

They reported that birds have kept their mates between multiple breeding cycles but they are not monogamous birds like some other species.

Meyers generally feed in the high canopy to avoid competition with other species, like monkeys and hornbills. They preferred unripe fruit and would eat primarily the seeds only. The seeds give them the energy they need to live out their active lifestyles and should not be mistaken as a diet for our much much lazier companion parrots who do not need that much fat. Meyers forage with other species like starlings, African green pigeons, grey lourie, and the black-headed oriole.

They do use other species to their benefit which I found fascinating. When squirrels made alarm calls to signal danger, the parrots reacted as well. For me this is interesting because it shows the training I do, applied behavior analysis, in action naturally in the wild. The parrots associated the scream with danger after for so long not reacting to it and being out in harms way. They use the environment and it’s consequences to adapt their behaviors.

Reference:
Boyes, Rutledge S., and Perrin, Michael R. (2009). Flocking dynamics and roosting behavior of Meyer’s parrot (Poicephalus meyeri) in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. African Zoology. 44(2), 181-193. Doi: 10.3377/004.044.0206