Parrots are considered the third most popular pet species, after dogs and cats, in the United States of America. Popular birds include budgerigars, lovebirds and cockatiels and are known for their plumage and vocal learning abilities. Plumage colour

variation remains the main driving force behind breeder selection. Despite the birds’ popularity, only two molecular genetic tests—bird sexing and pathogen screening—are commercially available to breeders. For a limited number of species, parentage

verification tests are available, but are mainly used in conservation and not for breeding purposes. No plumage colour genotyping test is available for any of the species. Due to the fact that there isn’t any commercial plumage genotype screening or

parentage verification tests available, breeders mate close relatives to ensure recessive colour alleles are passed to the next generation. This, in turn, leads to inbreeding depression and decreased fertility, lower hatchability and smaller clutch

sizes, all important traits in commercial breeding systems. This review highlights the research carried out in the field of pet parrot genomics and points out the areas where future research can make a vital contribution to understanding how parrot

breeding can be improved to breed healthy, genetically diverse birds.

The release of captive-raised parrots to create or supplement wild populations has been critiqued due to variable survival rates and unreliable flocking behavior. Private bird owners free- fly their parrots in outdoor environments and utilize techniques

that could address the needs of conservation breed and release projects. We present methods and results of a free-flight training technique used for 3 parrot flocks: A large-bodied (8 macaws of 3 species and 2 hybrids), small-bodied (25 individuals

of 4 species), and a Sun Parakeet flock (4 individuals of 1 species). Obtained as chicks, the birds were hand-reared in an enriched environment. As juveniles, the birds were systematically exposed to increasingly complex wildland environments, mirroring

the learning process of wild birds developing skills. The criteria we evaluated for each flock were predation rates, antipredator behavior, landscape navigation, and foraging. No parrots were lost to predation or disorientation during over 500 months

of free-flight time, and all birds demonstrated effective flocking, desirable landscape navigation, and wild food usage. The authors conclude that this free-flight method may be directly applicable for conservation releases, similar to the use of falconry

methods for raptor conservation.

Fire has important implications for the availability of suitable types of habitat for animals. Different species vary in their responses to fire, and quantifying the responses of key habitat attributes may facilitate manipulation of fire regimes to improve

conditions for species of conservation concern. The Orange-bellied Parrot Neophema chrysogaster prefers recently burned habitat for foraging when breeding but knowledge of how fire affects this species and its habitat is limited. We implemented a 2-year

before-after-control-impact (BACI) study to quantify short-term impacts of fire on food plants and habitat features. Relative to control sites, the four food plants we monitored in the treatment area responded differently to fire: one did not recover,

two reached pre-burn abundance after 20 months and another recovered by 1 year after fire, and by 20 months was more common in treatment sites. Relative to controls, the proportion of bare earth at treatment sites increased after fire and then gradually

declined, while mean vegetation height at treatment plots declined after fire and then gradually increased. Twenty months after fire, parrots foraged on abundant regeneration of the Dwarf Everlasting (Helichrysum pumilum) and fed the seeds of this species

to their nestlings. Fire alters the availability of key resources needed by breeding Orange-bellied Parrots, and ongoing manipulation of fire regimes may relieve limitation of natural foods for this species.

Tropical birds are purported to be longer lived than their temperate counterparts, but it has not been shown whether avian survival rates covary with latitude worldwide. Here, we perform a global-scale meta-analysis of 949 estimates from 204 studies

of avian survival and demonstrate that a latitudinal survival gradient exists in the northern hemisphere, is dampened or absent for southern hemisphere species, and that differences between passerines and nonpasserines largely drive these trends. We

also show that while extrinsic factors related to climate were poor predictors of apparent survival compared to latitude alone, the relationship between apparent survival and latitude is strongly mediated by intrinsic traits – large-bodied species and

species with smaller clutch size had the highest apparent survival. Our findings reveal that differences among intrinsic traits and whether species were passerines or nonpasserines surpass latitude and its underlying climatic factors in explaining global

patterns of apparent avian survival.