The order Psittaciformes is one of the most prevalent groups in the illegal wildlife trade.
Efforts to understand this threat have focused on describing the elements of the trade itself: actors,
extraction rates, and routes. However, the development of policy-oriented interventions also requires
an understanding of how research aims and actions are distributed across the trade chain, regions,
and species. We used an action-based approach to review documents published on illegal Psittaciformes
trade at a global scale to analyze patterns in research aims and actions. Research increased
exponentially in recent decades, recording 165 species from 46 genera, with an over representation
of American and Australasian genera. Most of the research provided basic knowledge for the intermediary
side of the trade chain. Aims such as the identification of network actors, zoonosis control,
and aiding physical detection had numerous but scarcely cited documents (low growth rate), while
behavior change had the highest growth rate. The Americas had the highest diversity of research
aims, contributing with basic knowledge, implementation, and monitoring across the whole trade
chain. Better understanding of the supply side dynamics in local markets, actor typology, and actor
interactions are needed. Protecting areas, livelihood incentives, and legal substitutes are actions
under-explored in parrots, while behavior change is emergingPeer reviewe