How extensive is the parrot trade?
Despite the difficulty and expense sometimes involved in keeping large parrots in captivity, amazons, macaws and cockatoos have become particularly popular in the United States. Globally, and locally, the parrot trade is extensive. From 1998 to 2000, the world trade in parrots totaled over one million birds. With stricter laws now in place in the United States, parrot imports have declined considerably and captive breeding has increased. Before passage of the Wild Bird Conservation Act, U.S. imports were substantial. In 1990, the United States imported 450,000 live birds, of which at least 150,000 were parrots. Today, roughly 17,000 parrots are imported into the United States each year; roughly 3,600 of these are taken from the wild. Other major parrot importers include Japan, the Netherlands, and Germany.
