ETYM Prob. from French Pierrot, dim. of Pierre Peter. French pierrot is also the name of the sparrow. Related to Paroquet, Petrel, Petrify.
1. A copycat who does not understand the words or acts being imitated.
2. Usually brightly colored zygodactyl tropical birds with short hooked beaks and the ability to mimic sounds.
Any bird of the order Psittaciformes, abundant in the tropics, especially in Australia and South America. They are mainly vegetarian, and range in size from the 8.5 cm/3.5 in pygmy parrot to the 100 cm/40 in Amazon parrot. The smaller species are commonly referred to as parakeets. The plumage is often very colorful, and the call is usually a harsh screech. Several species are endangered.
Parrots all have hooked bills and feet adapted for tree climbing. One of the rarest is the imperial parrot, found only in Dominica in the Caribbean, which is threatened by deforestation. The talent for imitating human speech is marked in the gray parrot Psittacus erithacus of Africa. Parrots were among the first items to be traded between natives and European settlers and merchants. These colorful birds have been valued as pets in the western world for many centuries. In 1986, 600,000 parrots were caught and sold.

To repeat mindlessly