[4] In 1751 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the red-billed parrot in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

Edwards based his hand-colored etching on a live bird in London that was owned by the botanist and Fellow of the Royal Society Peter Collinson.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Psittacus sordidus, and cited Edwards' work.

The specific epithet sordidus is Latin meaning "shabby" or "dirty".

Their upper breast is dull blue that becomes buff-olive with a pink tinge on the belly.

Subspecies P. s. corallinus is larger and greener than the nominate, and its mantle and back have gray and blue tinges.

They are found thus:[3][10] The red-billed parrot inhabits a variety of wooded landscapes including the interior, clearings, and edges of humid to wet lowland and submontane evergreen and semi-deciduous forests; cloud-, secondary, and gallery forests; and coffee plantations.

[10] Little is known about the red-billed parrot's foraging behavior or diet, though the latter is known to include fruits and blossoms.

The incubation period is about 27 days and fledging occurs about 12 weeks after hatch.