Sadly a lot of people get parrots without doing research. They are such intelligent creatures who need constant interaction and they also can live into their 80's. You have to dedicate a majority of your day to your parrot to keep them happy. If you own a parrot they are a huge part of your life. They are also very loud and messy creatures that love to chew on everything. If parrots aren't happy in their home they will start to self harm and they can become mean to their owners. I would love to have my own parrot but I know that I do not have time to properly care for one. I wouldn't get one until I was retired. We haven't done that, but it is a great idea lol! Birds like you for no rhyme or reason. I have multiple birds where I volunteer that for some reason love me. I have other birds that despise me and try to eat me when I get too close to them. One bird loves me because apparently I look like her old owner. My boyfriend who volunteers with me has a Grey named Ney that is obsessed with him, but she hates me. Some birds are just super nice and love everyone. Beeba loves almost everyone and is just a happy, easy going bird. We don't really teach them dirty words, but a lot of them know some! The other day I worked with a bird that I hadn't met before. When I picked him up he just started saying "What the fuck?!" over and over. It was hilarious. Only people who volunteer at the sanctuary can adopt birds from us. We want to make sure that the bird and potential owner have a strong relationship. Also people who volunteer here know the commitment of being a bird owner, and we trust them more than adopting out to the public. A majority of the birds we have are surrendered by their owners because they can't take care of them. We actually spend a lot of time educating people who want birds, and teaching them how hard it is to own one. If you don't bring Polly a cracker she will hunt you down and force you to give her one lol. It's in Washington state! I can never imagine a parrot, even in the wild, turning down a cracker. They are very food motivated creatures. There are almost 400 birds! It's due to the coloring. Beeba in the picture is a Congo African Grey. There is also a Timneh African Grey that is usually smaller in size and darker in color. The macaws have a ton of different cross breeders, but the most common are Green Wings, Scarlet, Blue and gold, and Military. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know our heating bill alone costs +$2000 a month. We use social media to ask for donations, and we also have an amazon wish list where people can buy products to help us out! Not a single volunteer here gets paid, so every single penny goes directly to the birds! This sanctuary actually for started when a couple found an abandoned Macaw, and they decided to spend their life savings starting this Sanctuary. Now we have saved over 400 birds. I have so much respect of the owner of Zazu's Sanctuary. The birds are offended and are starting parrot protest all over the sanctuary! Honestly, I think we should have more "domesticated" parrots in these types of environments. They thrive here since they can be apart of a flock. Most of them do great having other birds to interact with. Some birds prefer more quiet areas, and we give them their own cages. We do make sure that they get time out of their cages so they can stretch their wings. As for birds in the wild, we just have to hope that people will stop catching them and taking them away from their natural habitats, but sadly there isn't too much we can do to stop that. You can train them to have conversations, but it takes time and you usually have to start young. A large amount of the parrots know a lot of words/phrases, but they can't full on communicate with us. Although some of the birds know the names of fruit and will ask for specific ones. If you give them the wrong one they usually spit it out. I hope I answered all your questions! Thank you for showing interest in parrots! I love educating people about these glorious creatures.