Parrots are one of the most complex avian lineages worldwide, yet little is known about their patterns of movement and space use. Such information is vital for understanding the social development and structure of members of this long-lived order, as well as for the establishment of effective conservation and management actions for the many threatened or endangered species. While global positioning system (GPS) telemetry has been employed successfully on a broad range of birds, to date no studies have been published in which this technology has been used on any psittaciform species, most probably due to concerns held by researchers regarding the high cost of GPS units or the perceived ability of members of this order to remove or damage tracking gear. Here, we evaluate the feasibility and performance of animal-borne GPS telemetry as a means of tracking parrots. First, we encased inexpensive (<US$70) archival GPS dataloggers (~19 g) in bite-proof housing, and then we evaluated the effects of the devices on the study animals and their operational performance during field trials (n = 14) on wild-caught Kea (Nestor notabilis), a large (~1 kg) parrot endemic to the Southern Alps of New Zealand. We observed no apparent adverse effects of the loggers on the behavior and condition of the Kea and no damage to the devices that impaired their function, and found that the operational performance of the loggers was similar to that reported for devices deployed on other birds and animals. Our study demonstrates that GPS telemetry can be a highly effective method for characterizing the movement patterns of free-ranging parrots.