The African Red-Bellied Parrot

Red-Bellieds are native to Africa; they are about 9 inches in length. They are prolific talkers and whistlers; they learn to mimic many of the sounds around the house, like the phone, microwave, and doorbell. They are very affectionate after about the 10th month. They go through a period, much like the "terrible twos" in humans, between 5 months and 10 months. But after that they are wonderful. They also go through a hormonal stage starting about the third year each October - March. The worst of it is usually only about a month long, but can be any of the months between Oct. and Mar. The Red Bellied would make a good "Apartment" pet since they usually are not very noisy and even their loudest squawk will not bother the neighbors. They love interaction with their human family but are not as "clingy" as some other parrot species. They are happy if they are in the same room as their family.

As you can see here, this species is dimorphic which means the males and females look different. The male is the one with the red belly.

With permission from Gay Noeth of On African Wings Aviary, here is a picture of a three year old female that has quite a bit of red still on her belly. Gay says that Sweetpea's Mother and Grandmother both have the red on their bellys and all of Sweetpea's sisters have kept the red as well.