Did you know?

. Are about 30 centimetres tall, the same as a ruler . Weigh between 250 and 350 grams . Are green and gold, like our Springbok rugby players . Girls have a red dot on their heads . Mature at about 5 years old . Lay 1 to 5 eggs, which incubate for about 30 days . Chicks hatch with soft, white, downy feathers

. Both parents feed the chicks for the first year

. Pair for life - this is called monogamy

. Are granivores, which means they eat seeds

. Favourite food is yellowwood kernels

. Beaks are perfect nut crackers

. Can live for 30 years

. They were Bird of the Year in 2023

. A group of parrots is called a pandemonium. They are sociable, chatty, and very noisy!

. Different colonies have their own languages and calls.

. Cape Parrots nest in yellowwood trees, in hollows 8 metres to 25 metres above ground - up to six stories high! They line the hollow where perhaps a branch broke off, with woodchips to make a cosy home

. The Cape Parrot (Poicephalus robustus - Latin name) is South Africa's only endemic parrot and is endangered, with fewer than 2,000 individuals left in the wild.

. Most of the population lives in the forests of the Eastern Cape and southern KwaZulu-Natal, with a smaller, cherished group of approximately 150 in Limpopo. These parrots depend on healthy, indigenous forests to survive, but the biggest threat to the species is habitat loss caused by forest degradation and historical logging of the large yellowwood trees they rely on for food and nesting.