All 5 Parrot Variants in Minecraft (And Why Cookies Kill Them)

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Parrots come in 5 variants: red, blue, green, cyan and gray. They spawn in jungles, are tamed with seeds, dance to jukebox music, mimic nearby hostile mobs, ride on your shoulders - and die instantly if fed a cookie.

What you need

Any seeds (wheat, melon, pumpkin, beetroot) to tame
A jungle or bamboo jungle biome
A jukebox and discs for the dance party

Step by step

The 5 variants: red, blue, green, cyan and gray - color is fixed at spawn and purely cosmetic.
Where: parrots spawn in ones and twos in jungles and bamboo jungles - look and listen in the canopy.
Taming: feed any seeds until hearts appear - parrots are skittish, so approach slowly.
Shoulder ride: walk through a tamed parrot to perch it on your shoulder; it hops off if you jump, fall or take damage. Two parrots can ride both shoulders.
Mimicry: parrots imitate the sounds of hostile mobs nearby - a free zombie and creeper alarm, and a constant source of jump scares.
Dancing: play a music disc in a jukebox and nearby parrots dance - the Party Parrot easter egg.
Never feed cookies: a cookie kills a parrot instantly with poison particles - a real-chocolate-is-toxic-to-birds reference.
Breeding note: parrots do not breed in the game - the only way to more parrots is taming wild ones.

Java vs Bedrock

The cookie kill is instant and silent - keep cookies far from your taming hand when feeding seeds.

Versions: All 5 variants and behaviors are the same on Java and Bedrock. Parrots have no baby form and cannot be bred on either edition.

Frequently asked questions

How many parrot variants are there?

5: red, blue, green, cyan and gray. All five spawn naturally in jungles and behave identically.

Why did my parrot die from a cookie?

Cookies are toxic to parrots by design - one cookie kills instantly, a nod to chocolate being poisonous to real birds. Feed seeds instead.

Can parrots breed?

No. Parrots are one of the few tameable mobs with no breeding mechanic - you must find and tame each one in the jungle.