In 1922, Cyril Jerrard captured the first and only photographs of the paradise parrot, the only Australian bird to be officially declared extinct since European colonisation. Jerrard was well aware he was looking at one of the last of its kind: “The one undisguisable fact [is] that the advent of the white man has spelled destruction to one of the loveliest of the native birds of this country,” he wrote in 1924.

Unlike other birds, parrots don't rely on what they eat to colour their feathers. Instead they rely on some fancy feather physics. By Belinda Smith.

Scientists have found that birds are not only as clever as apes, but have more brain cells despite much tinier brains. Crows and parrots have shown remarkable skills such as being able to use tools.