Canberra during winter, the outer western suburbs and north shore of Sydney, and the Carnarvon Gorge in central Queensland. Aviculture In their native Australia, king parrots are occasionally bred in aviaries and kept as calm and relatively quiet household pets if hand-raised. As pets, they have limited "talking" ability and normally prefer not to be handled, but they do bond readily to people and can be very devoted. They tend to be selective in their choice of seeds that they eat, preferring black sunflower seeds and tend not to ingest small seeds found in pre-packaged retail bags. They are relatively unknown outside Australia. Life expectancy in the wild is unknown, but some pets have been known to live up to 25 years. King parrots are near the bottom of the pecking order. At a food source of seeds, the approximate order is as follows: Cockatoo, rainbow Lorikeet, magpie, corella, galah, king parrot, crimson rosella. Gallery References Further reading Australian Parrots, by Forshaw, Joseph M., Illustrated by Cooper, William T., 2002, Third (revised) Edition, Alexander Editions, Photographic Field Guide Birds of Australia (second edition); . Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, 7th Edition, Simpson & Day. External links World Parrot Trust Parrot Encyclopedia – Species Profile Australian King Parrot Australian King Parrot - Atlas of Living Australia - species page Australian king parrot Birds of Queensland Birds of New South Wales Birds of Victoria (Australia) Endemic birds of Australia Parrots of Oceania Taxa named by Hinrich Lichtenstein Australian king parrot