The African Grey Parrot is confined to the equatorial forest belt from Guinea-Bissau to Kakamega Forest in Western Kenya.
In Uganda it is found in suitable habitat across the south of the country, north to Kaniyo Pabidi in Murchison Falls Protected Area, across to Mabira Forest and the Sesse Islands.

There are two described ‘races’, or forms which are physically different in appearance, the paler nominate, Psittacus erithacus erithacus in central east Africa and the darker P. e. timneh in the west with a cline of increasing size from West to East. The sexes are similar, the male becoming darker with age and the young bird is told from an adult by a grey, not yellow iris. It is a large Parrot, slightly eclipsed in size by the Grey-headed Parrot Poicephalus suahelicus (seen only in Uganda at Mgahinga and Bwindi, Ruhiza National Parks) and usually seen flying overhead in flocks of 2-20, uttering a series of screams, screeches, pops, whistles and croaks.

Its demand as a very popular household pet is proving to be the cause of its increasing rarity in the wild, through illegal collecting as well as habitat destruction.

There are only 21 species of Parrot in Africa compared to 52 in Australia and 70 in South America.

Habitats and Habits
Historically this species would have been far more widespread within the forest biome, but the fragmentation of forest cover over its range has reduced it to isolated populations in pockets of forest.

In Kampala we see them usually in the morning and evening coming to and from roost. They are particularly fond of Oil Palm fruits, of which there are many mature trees in Kampala, planted years ago as ornamental specimens. Birds flock together at night at traditional communal roost sites (in Gabon traditional roosts of 5-10,000 birds have been recorded!) and depart in the morning to fruiting trees sometimes flying great distances to feed. Being confined to the equator it does not have a seasonal migration pattern but flies far and wide in response to fruiting trees in different seasons. During the rains it will capitalise on fruiting forest trees not travelling very far, but during the dry season it will often move away from the forest into agricultural areas to feed on Maize, causing considerable damage to subsistence crops. It can be seen flying over Lake Victoria between the Sesse Islands and forest patches in and around Masaka, distances of upto 50km.

African Greys nest in large trees, in old growth forests that have plenty of dead wood to support naturally occurring cavities. They will use old woodpecker holes and lay 2-4 white eggs.

Parrots are the only birds to have a movable maxilla, the upper bill attached hinge like to the skull. They can exert tremendous power with the bill, which is used to open the more stubborn of nuts and fruit.
They have the most remarkable feet, using them not just as other birds do, but as ‘hands’ to hold food items like a stick of sugar cane in the same way that we would. Instead of ‘normal’ bird feet, (three forward and one back) they have two toes pointing forward and two back (zygodactyl). These feet combined with the bill, which it uses to hold onto branches, enable the bird to climb very well along flimsy branches to reach fruit at the tips, giving it an advantage over other birds its size, which are physically unable to climb in the same way.

Given their impressive natural vocabulary and range of calls, they are very well disposed to pick up new sounds in and around their environment. This is a particular attraction for the bird as a pet, which will imitate everything from a cell phone to the toilet being flushed! Parrots generally live to a great age the famous Sulphur-crested Cockatoo at London Zoo lived to 126 years old! Without the pressures of survival in the wild, African Greys will live up to 60 years in captivity, and around 40-50 in the wild. If their breeding habitat is removed, they will still mistakenly be seen as ‘thriving’ for years, but not breeding. Eventually the population becomes too old to breed and suddenly over a short period of time dies off. The main predator, other than Man, to prey upon the African Grey Parrot is the Black Sparrowhawk, the largest of the ‘Accipiter’ family, sometimes seen around Kampala and Entebbe. This predator is by nature secretive, ambushing its prey from thick cover. Others include Ayres’s Hawk Eagle and the African Harrier-Hawk (or Gymnogene) the latter using its

specialized long, double-jointed legs to reach into the Parrot’s nest-hole to reach the chicks.

Conservation

With old growth forest severely depleted outside of major reserves, breeding habitat can be simulated in suburban areas. Firewood collection has put great pressure on hole nesting species and those which feed on invertebrates, through the collection of dead wood, which in a forest is as important as live wood.

An exciting activity to experiment with is to install Parrot nesting boxes. Anyone in Kampala with a garden having medium to large trees, that attract feeding Greys, can try putting up different designs to see if they become occupied.
A basic box shape 250X250 cm wide by 600cm long with an entrance hole 12cm diameter may attract Parrots to it. It can also attract bees, so caution is advised as to where it is actually placed!

I had a pair of Brown Parrots nest in a box in the suburb of Ntinda, as well as a pair of Burchell’s Starlings on another occasion. Black and White Casqued Hornbills may also greatly appreciate a tea-chest or beer keg sized nest-box, which they readily take to. There may be as many as 2000 pet African Greys in Kampala, most having been caught in the wild. Bird breeders who rear African Greys, are supposed to fit a closed ring to the leg of the chick before it grows too big. Therefore an adult with a closed ring will probably be a captive bred bird. There are many African Grey Parrots at the Entebbe Wildlife Education Centre, mostly confiscated from poachers, or people trying to smuggle them out at the airport. Unfortunately it is not easy to release pet Grays to the wild because of their dependency and fearlessness of people. If a tame Grey is released it will inevitably turn up in someone’s garden and fall prey to dogs or people.

Debby Cox and Wayne Boardman of the Entebbe Wildlife Education Centre, and I once performed an operation on 36 African Grey Parrots to remove very badly fitted rings that had been put on when the birds were small and had become imbedded into the flesh of the foot of the grown adult.
It was a successful operation and all the birds were fitted with new rings of the correct size and released onto the Entebbe peninsular. The inscription on the rings read ‘Please inform EBB Zoo’ and a number, so we could know of the success of the released birds if reported.
Some months after this I saw a breeding pair of Greys, one wearing one of our rings the other without, indicating that the second one must have been a wild bird!

If you ever see someone selling African Grey Parrots on the street, don’t buy one, as this will only encourage the wildlife collectors to go out and catch more from the wild.

But do watch out in the mornings and evenings for flocks of Pigeon sized birds flying over head on fast shallow wing-beats, emitting a series of comical pops, whistles, croaks and screeches and think how lucky we are to have such a species in and around our city.

References.
Britton 1984
Pearson, Zimmerman and Turner 1996.
Birds of Africa vol 3 1998 Fry, Keith, Urban