Top Ten Famous Parrots....

1) Alex - Dr. Irene Pepperberg's talking African Grey parrot, Alex has garnered more media coverage than any other parrot in modern history. Alex flew off to birdie heaven on September 6, 2007, at the age of 31. His story is immortalized in Dr. Pepperberg's book, Alex and Me.

As recounted in her book, Alex's last words to Dr. Pepperberg were:
"You be good. I love you," Alex said.
"I love you too."
"You'll be in tomorrow?"
"Yes, I'll be in tomorrow."


2) Snowball - of YouTube dancing fame. Snowball is a head-bopping, foot-stomping Medium Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, and subsequent studies have shown that he can move in time to differing rhythms and to different songs.

3) Einstein - yet another chattering African Grey parrot of YouTube fame. Einstein has been a regular on prime time TV and late night talk shows. It's a great act; I especially like his spaceship and laser sound effects.

4) The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill - stars of both a film and a book, they are feral cherry-headed and blue-crowned conures in San Fransisco. The birds are free to jet across the open sky and generally act like parrots, while the humans spend their days cooped up in restrictive, enclosed spaces. While you're thinking about that, do the right thing and run out and buy your parrot a larger cage.

5) Paulie - star of the 1998 movie by the same name, Paulie is a wise-cracking blue crown conure, who sounds remarkably like Jay Mohr.

6) Fred - Tony Baretta's Triton Cockatoo. Baretta was a detective series that ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. If the bird is still alive and collecting residuals from the show, I imagine it must be the wealthiest parrot in the world by now.

7) Gerald - a character in the late, great Michael Crichton's novel, NEXT. Gerald is a transgenic African Grey parrot who helps a transgenic chimp with his math homework and sings country music. Gerald's vivid memory, detailed powers of recall and intelligent banter land him in hot water with his humans.

8) Parrot Heads - Jimmy Buffet fans. Party with a purpose... and generally with a funny parrot hat.

9) Monty Python's dead parrot - a Norwegian Blue - they prefer lying on their backs.

10) Fawkes - Albus Dumbledore's phoenix. Okay, Fawkes may not be a parrot, but its beak has enough of a hook to qualify as such for the purposes of this list. It might pass for a ratty Scarlet Macaw if you were drunk enough and didn't know anything about birds. Finding ten famous parrots is more difficult than you might think.