These feisty, opinionated fellows can be very loud when excited or just plain furious (they can have ferocious tempers). Senegals prefer the rainforest and savanna environments that Greys do—sometimes the two parrot species have been seen flying together! Like Greys, Senegals seem to enjoy the ecotones created by forest elephants.

Wet weather seems to agree with them—they often migrate to areas in southern Mauritania during the rainy season, and don't seem to spend a lot of time in drier climates. They think nothing of flying somewhere for the day in search of food, but they're also known to undertake short migrations to follow the rains.

In Ghana, Senegals are found in the marshes, but they also like to steal millet and peanuts from local farmers. Mostly their diet consists of fruit and the seeds of various trees and other vegetation.

Senegals travel in smaller groupings—usually families, or clans of twenty or so members. They tend to breed in the rainy season and raise from two to four babies.

Red-bellied Parrots like the woods and dry areas. They sometimes hang out with groups of Meyer's and Jardine's in Kenya and Tanzania, and with other parrots in different parts of their range.

You might call them thrill-seekers—one of their favorite flying techniques is to zoom at high speed just below the tops of the trees. They like perching on bare, dead branches; evidently overgrown vegetation doesn't suit them.

In the wild they like to eat figs, acacia seeds, fruits, and farmers' maize (corn) crops. Red-bellied Parrots tend to drink a lot of water and can be found around watering holes.

Families raise one or two babies a season.

In general you can spot a baby and a female Red-bellied by the lack of the orange chest found on the males, plus there's no yellow on the head and/or wings. Their heads are more grey than the males'.

You can spot a Meyer's among other African parrots—it's the only one with a lot of blue or blue-green on its underparts, and the only bird with blue or blue-green on its behind. The rest of its body is a rather dull brown, with the exception in some groupings of a flash of yellow.

One of the smallest of its kind, but larger than a lovebird (also from Africa), Meyer's tend to travel in the same circles as the Ruppell's Parrot and Brown-headed Parrot in central and eastern Africa.

Like the Senegal, the Meyer's seem to prefer wetter climates—but not too wet! They avoid lowland rainforests in the Congo, and equally wet spots in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

These parrots prefer the tallest trees, hanging out with their immediate family, and occasionally can be seen in clan groupings of 50 or so members. Meyer's are known to fly long distances in search of food.

Meyer's are not a friend of farmers, and as a result many are killed because farmers don't appreciate the mess they make of crops. However, Meyer's are known to eat insects such as caterpillars.

You can find Jardine's in lowland rainforests of west Africa, or higher forest areas in Kenya and Tanzania. Another favorite is plantations of shade-grown coffee. These birds take up residence in an area just like humans move into a neighborhood.

Like the Senegal, the Jardine's will cover long distances in a day to find food in neighboring rainforest or shade-grown coffee plantations. They seem to eat a lot of oil palm nuts, a wide variety of seeds and fruits, flowers, and insects.

They tend to congregate in family groupings or in clans. Families raise from two to four babies.

If you drink coffee, you can help preserve parrots like Jardine's in the wild—along with toucans, warblers and other species; and ensure that children in coffee-producing countries (Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, and Africa) stay healthy and receive an education.

How? Simply by switching to organic coffee you provide a future for all creatures.

Remember Juan Valdéz, the symbol of Colombian coffee? He is a coffee farmer, and family farmers traditionally have been the growers of the world's coffee.

Unfortunately his image has been usurped by agribusiness. Their huge coffee plantations are destroying the lives of the family farmer. In one Mexican state, 500 coffee-growing families a week leave because they are no longer able to make a living.

Learn more about this topic from Conservation International

Coffee grows in shaded areas but the agribusiness plantations clear-cut native environments to grow coffee in rows that make it easier to harvest with machinery. This system also requires substantial use of chemicals, and the deforestation necessary to this business style has destroyed habitat for many plants and animals—including Jardine's.

Switch to organic coffee today and the small, family farmers of the world—along with wild Jardine's—will be happy that you did.

Sure, they look like they're top-heavy and likely to fall over—but they also look like a big version of a Red-bellied Parrot with a longer, finer beak.

They like mangroves, woods along rivers, and ecotones with a lot of big trees (especially Acacia and Podocarpus).

Cape Parrots think nothing of making long-distance foraging trips for their traditional foods such as fruits, seeds, and palm nuts. Unfortunately, humans have largely destroyed their homelands. Where Cape Parrots cannot find traditional food they rely on what farmers are growing instead—such as pecans, millet, apples, and peanuts—and farmers take revenge by killing as many Cape Parrots as they can.

The Cape Parrot, originally from Africa.

You can generally tell a female from a male Cape Parrot by the orange band or cap of feathers on the top of her head.

The Cape Parrot used to range across much of Africa but their numbers are declining because their homelands have been converted to farms.