Singapore hosts first parrot-focused event to boost bird care knowledge

Singapore’s first parrot-focused educational event turned the Gardenhouse at Jurong Lake Gardens into a practical classroom for bird owners, families and curious visitors. Friends of Parrots Day ran from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, 30 May 2026, with close to 20 booths and six free talks giving caregivers one place to ask questions that usually get scattered across clinics, shops and online groups.

The setup mattered because the event was built for hands-on learning, not just browsing. Animal & Veterinary Service, which sits under the National Parks Board, organized it with Parrot Society (Singapore) around a simple goal: strengthen parrot-care knowledge and encourage responsible pet ownership. That showed up in the topics on offer, from spotting health problems through feathers and body language to building a safer home environment and understanding how the illegal wildlife trade affects bird welfare.

For parrot keepers, the timing was deliberate. Friends of Parrots Day sat alongside World Parrot Day on 31 May, a date established in 2004 by the World Parrot Trust and used by World Animal Protection to highlight the threats parrots face in the wild and in captivity. AVS has said demand for wildlife products fuels illegal wildlife trade, and Singapore’s wildlife-trade rules are tied to the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act under its CITES obligations. That broader conservation backdrop gave the event a sharper edge than a typical pet fair.

Jurong Lake Gardens also gave the day a symbolic setting. The 90-hectare green oasis is Singapore’s third national garden and the first in the heartlands, and NParks completed it on 8 September 2024 with the opening of the rejuvenated Chinese and Japanese Gardens. The wider Jurong Lake District is envisioned to eventually include 100 hectares of green spaces, 70 hectares of water bodies and 17 km of waterfront areas, placing bird education inside a landscape meant for community use.

That matters because AVS is not just another organizer in the pet space. NParks describes it as the main touch-point on animal and veterinary matters in Singapore and the first responder for animal-related feedback, which helps explain why Friends of Parrots Day felt less like a one-off outing and more like a sign of where local support is heading. For owners trying to do right by their birds, the message was clear: safer keeping starts with better access to advice, and Singapore is now putting that advice in the same room as the parrots it aims to protect.