Chicken Legs

These are my Peatree's legs. To a bird person (or nut by your definition if you aren't one) or parrot enthusiast, they might appear like a Nanday conure's instead of a green-cheek's because of the red "pants." However, my Peatree is the pineapple mutation of green-cheeked conures, which do have the red pant-legs.

If you look carefully at her toes, you will notice that there are two in front and two in back (Zygodactyl in the bird world), like a woodpeckers. This enables them to climb trees in the wild and toys in the cage.

Zygodactyl feet is a trait in all parrots and woodpeckers, the sole exception being the Three-toed Woodpecker. Essentially, the only difference between them is that all parrots have a hooked beak meant for hulling seeds, whilst woodpeckers have a straight beak meant for (obviously) drilling holes and cracking seeds. So, if you see any bird that has a hooked beak and "Z" feet, it's a parrot.

You might raise a question to this.

"Any bird?" you might ask. Yes, any bird. "What about...(pauses to rack brain for exceptions)...budgies?! Gotcha! Budgies aren't parrots! They're....budgies...?"

WRONG. Budgies, short for budgerigars, are true parrots. They hull seeds with their hooked beak and climb around the cage and on toys with their "Z" feet.

"Ummm...wait! Hawks have a hooked beak, and you can't tell me that they're parrots!" You're right, I can't tell you that, and I'm not even going to try. They're not. If you look closely at a raptor's feet, you can see they have three toes in front and one in back for perching. And, as you may note, their beaks are not for hulling seeds.

"Fine, you have me beat. I get it now." Good! Some people are a lot more difficult to convince. Once my editor met a person who thought cockatoos weren't parrots simply because they were white. Thankfully, she was able to explain without making the person feel dumb!

Of course, Peatree doesn't really care if I or anyone knows that she's a true parrot. Neither do my budgies. All they care about is that I take care of them correctly and give them lots of toys and attention!

Happy parroting, everyone!