Foraging is the instinctive behaviour of searching for and obtaining food... All animals must forage for food in order to survive, grow to maturity, reproduce and raise young. In their natural environment birds spend 50 to 70 percent of the daylight hours foraging; this may include travelling to and from preferred patch locations, defining resources, climbing and accessing a resource, manipulating and preparing the resource for consumption. The demands of food acquisition impose significant challenges to both the physiology and behaviour of birds efficient foraging is a result of decisions regarding patch choice, patch exploitation strategy, selection of resources, and size of foraging flock (Parrots are extremely social and generally live and travel in large groups or flocks) these interactions within the environment are not only mentally stimulating but also require a tremendous amount of vigorous physical exercise.

Living in their natural environment all birds must allocate time and effort to forage for food. All food items have both a cost (time and energy) and benefit (net food value). Cost:  wasted energy, loss of valuable time and risk from exposure to predator’s benefits:  net energy intake (calories consumed) per unit of time. The relative value of each of these determines how much “profit” each specific food item represents.

Birds do exhibit the ability to modify specific behaviours to achieve a balance between cost and benefits Foraging strategies may vary with different patterns of resource availability. A resource Patch (a defined area with the probability of available food items) must be located. Patch choice and value assessment is determined by the economic law of diminishing returns. Patch “profitability” is determined by the energy yield of food items divided by handling and processing time after the resource has been located. As a result of foraging the resources within a patch will be depleted, however, the risk of poor performance is nonexistent as the forager will quickly search for more fertile ground.

The simple fact is: a wild bird is challenged to find food daily in order to survive and this will require a substantial amount of very hard work.