Social value (SV) activities are all intended to rectify the harmful impacts of business operations and promote positive social change. Arguably the focus of such activities should be upon those most in need and where companies can make the most positive differences. However, there has been no research considering the relevance and appropriateness of the intended recipients of such activities undertaken by construction contractors. The problem therefore exists that it is not known if current SV efforts are focused on the areas in society that would most benefit from SV. Previous studies have revealed that parrot species perceived as beautiful by humans were more prevalent in conservation populations, even if such breads were not in need of conservation. Parrots deemed ugly, despite being endangered, were less likely to be conserved. The construction industry is an ideal context to explore why certain SV recipients are selected over others as increasing stakeholder scrutiny and public sector procurement requirements have resulted in high levels of SV engagement. The aim of this research is to understand which recipients’ construction contractors focus upon with their SV efforts. A Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of 10 contractor SV reports categorised the SV practices undertaken. The QCA codes derived from the UK Government’s SV Model as this arguably represents the areas the UK government view as SV priorities. The findings reveal that contractor SV practices are primarily aimed towards a select group of recipients and activities, such as addressing economic inequality and tackling climate change (the pretty parrots). However. Covid-19 recovery and bridging the disability employment gap (the ugly parrots) are government SV requirements that are not addressed as effectively by construction contractors despite their national significance. This chapter contributes to a previously underexplored area in the literature of which areas of SV contractors primarily focus on and which they do not.