Extinct species of parakeet native to North America
The
Carolina parakeet
(
Conuropsis carolinensis
), or
Carolina conure
, is an
extinct species
of small green
neotropical parrot
with a bright yellow head, reddish orange face, and pale beak that was native to the
Eastern
,
Midwest
, and
Plains states
of the United States. It was the only indigenous
parrot
within its range, as well as one of only three parrot species native to the United States (the others being the
thick-billed parrot
, now
extirpated
,
[3]
and the
green parakeet
, still present in
Texas
;
[4]
a fourth parrot species, the
red-crowned amazon
, is debated).
[5]
[6]
[7]
It was called
puzzi la nee
("head of yellow") or
pot pot chee
by the
Seminole
and
kelinky
in
Chickasaw
.
[8]
Though formerly prevalent within its range, the bird had become rare by the middle of the 19th century. The last confirmed sighting in the wild was of the
C. c. ludovicianus
subspecies in 1910. The last known specimen, a male named
Incas
, perished in captivity at the
Cincinnati Zoo
in 1918,
[9]
[10]
and the species was declared
extinct
in 1939.
The earliest reference to these parrots was in 1583 in
Florida
reported by Sir
George Peckham
in
A True Report of the Late Discoveries of the Newfound Lands
of expeditions conducted by English explorer
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
, who notes that explorers in North America "doe testifie that they have found in those countryes; ... parrots." They were first scientifically described in English naturalist
Mark Catesby
's two-volume
Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands
published in
London
in 1731 and 1743.
Carolina parakeets were probably
poisonous
? French-American naturalist and painter
John J. Audubon
noted that cats apparently died from eating them, and they are known to have eaten the toxic seeds of
cockleburs
.
[11]
[12]
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
Carolinensis
is a species of the
genus
Conuropsis
, one of numerous genera of
New World
Neotropical
parrots in family
Psittacidae
of
true parrots
.
The binomial
Psittacus carolinensis
was assigned by Swedish zoologist
Carl Linnaeus
in the 10th edition of
Systema Naturae
published in 1758. The species was given its own genus,
Conuropsis
, by Italian zoologist and ornithologist
Tommaso Salvadori
in 1891 in his
Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum
, volume 20. The name is derived from the Greek-ified
conure
("parrot of the genus
Conurus
" an obsolete name of genus
Aratinga
) +
-opsis
("likeness of") and Latinized
Carolina
(from
Carolana
, an English colonial province
[Note 1]
[13]
) +
-ensis
(of or "from a place"), therefore a bird "like a conure from Carolina."
Two subspecies are recognized: The
Louisiana
subspecies of the Carolina parakeet,
C. c. ludovicianus
,
[Note 2]
was slightly different in color from the
nominate subspecies
, being more bluish-green and generally of a somewhat subdued coloration, and became extinct in much the same way, but at a somewhat earlier date (early 1910s). The
Appalachian Mountains
separated these birds from the eastern
C. c. carolinensis
.
[14]
Evolution
[
edit
]
According to a study of
mitochondrial DNA
recovered from museum specimens, their closest living relatives include some of the South American
Aratinga
parakeets: The
Nanday parakeet
, the
sun parakeet
, and the
golden-capped parakeet
. The authors note the bright yellow and orange plumage and blue wing feathers found in
C. carolinensis
are traits shared by another species, the
jandaya parakeet
(
A. jandaya
), that was not sampled in the study, but is generally thought to be closely related.
[Note 3]
To help resolve the divergence time a whole genome of a preserved specimen has now been sequenced.
[15]
[16]
[17]
The Carolina parakeet colonized North America about 5.5 million years ago. This was well before North America and South America were joined by the formation of the
Panama
land bridge
about 3.5
mya
. Since the Carolina parakeets' more distant relations are geographically closer to its own historic range while its closest relatives are more geographically distant to it, these data are consistent with the generally accepted hypothesis that Central and
North America
were colonized at different times by distinct lineages of parrots ? parrots that originally invaded South America from
Antarctica
some time after the breakup of
Gondwana
, where Neotropical
parrots originated
approximately 50 mya.
The following
cladogram
shows the placement of the Carolina parakeet among its closest relatives, after a DNA study by Kirchman
et al
. (2012):
[16]
A fossil parrot, designated
Conuropsis fratercula
, was described based on a single
humerus
from the
Miocene
Sheep Creek Formation (possibly late
Hemingfordian
, c. 16 mya, possibly later) of
Snake River
, Nebraska.
[18]
It was a smaller bird, three-quarters the size of the Carolina parakeet. "The present
species
is of peculiar interest as it represents the first known parrot-like bird to be described as a fossil from North America." (Wetmore 1926;
[18]
italics added) However, it is not completely certain that the species is correctly assigned to
Conuropsis
.
[19]
Description
[
edit
]
The Carolina parakeet was a small, green parrot very similar in size and coloration to the extant
jenday parakeet
and
sun conure
- the sun conure being its closest living relative.
[20]
The majority of the plumage was green with lighter green underparts, a bright yellow head and orange forehead and face extending to behind the eyes and upper cheeks (lores). The shoulders were yellow, continuing down the outer edge of the wings. The primary feathers were mostly green, but with yellow edges on the outer primaries. Thighs were green towards the top and yellow towards the feet. Male and female adults were identical in plumage, however males were slightly larger than females (
sexually dimorphic
). The legs and feet were light brown. They share the
zygodactyl
feet of the parrot family. The skin around the eyes was white and the beak was pale flesh colored. These birds weigh about 3.5 oz.,
[Note 4]
are 13 in. long, and have wingspans of 21?23 in.
Young Carolina parakeets differed slightly in coloration from adults. The face and entire body were green, with paler underparts. They lacked yellow or orange plumage on the face, wings, and thighs. Hatchlings were covered in mouse-gray down, until about 39?40 days old, when green wings and tails appeared. Fledglings had full adult plumage around 1 year of age.
[21]
These birds were fairly long-lived, at least in captivity; a pair was kept at the
Cincinnati Zoo
for over 35 years.
Distribution and habitat
[
edit
]
The Carolina parakeet had the northernmost range of any known parrot. It was found from southern
New York
and
Wisconsin
to
Kentucky
,
Tennessee
, and the
Gulf of Mexico
, from the
Atlantic Seaboard
to as far west as eastern
Colorado
. It lived in
old-growth forests
along rivers and in swamps.
[22]
[23]
Its range was described by early explorers thus: the 43rd parallel as the northern limit, the 26th as the most southern, the 73rd and 106th meridians as the eastern and western boundaries, respectively, the range included all or portions of at least 28 states.
[Note 5]
Its habitats were old-growth wetland forests along rivers and in swamps, especially in the Mississippi-Missouri drainage basin with large hollow trees including
cypress
and
sycamore
to use as roosting and nesting sites.
Only very rough estimates of the birds' former prevalence can be made, with an estimated range of 20,000 to 2.5 million km
2
, and population density of 0.5 to 2.0 parrots per km
2
, population estimates range from tens of thousands to a few million birds (though the densest populations occurred in Florida covering 170,000 km
2
, so hundreds of thousands of the birds may have been in that state alone).
The species may have appeared as a very rare
vagrant
in places as far north as
southern Ontario
in
Canada
. A few bones, including a
pygostyle
found at the Calvert Site in southern Ontario, came from the Carolina parakeet. The possibility remains open that this specimen was taken there for ceremonial purposes.
[24]
Behavior and diet
[
edit
]
The bird lived in huge, noisy flocks of as many as 300 birds. It built its nest in a hollow tree, laying two to five
[25]
(most accounts say two) 1.6 in (4.1 cm) round white eggs. Reportedly, multiple female parakeets could deposit their eggs into one nest, similar to nesting behavior described in the
monk parakeet
(
Myiopsitta monachus
).
[26]
It mostly ate the seeds of forest trees and shrubs, including those of cypress,
hackberry
, beech, sycamore, elm, pine, maple, oak, and other plants such as
thistles
and sandspurs (
Cenchrus
species). It also ate
fruits
, including apples, grapes, and figs (often from orchards by the time of its decline), as well as flower buds, and occasionally, insects.
[22]
[27]
It was especially noted for its predilection for cockleburs (
Xanthium strumarium
),
[12]
a plant which contains a toxic
glucoside
,
[28]
and it was considered to be an agricultural pest of grain crops.
[29]
Extinction
[
edit
]
The last captive Carolina parakeet,
Incas
, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918, in the same cage as
Martha
, the last
passenger pigeon
, which died in 1914.
[30]
There are no scientific studies or surveys of this bird by American naturalists; most information about it is from anecdotal accounts and museum specimens, so details of its prevalence and decline are unverified or speculative.
Extensive accounts of the precolonial and early colonial have been given for prevalence of this bird. The existence of flocks of gregarious, very colorful and raucous parrots could hardly have gone unnoted by European explorers, as parrots were virtually unknown in seafaring European nations in the 16th and 17th centuries. Later accounts in the latter half of the 19th century onward noted the birds' sparseness and absence.
[31]
Genetic evidence suggests that while populations had been in decline since the
last glacial maximum
, the lack of evidence of inbreeding suggests that the birds declined very quickly.
[32]
The birds' range collapsed from east to west with settlement and clearing of the eastern and southern deciduous forests. John J. Audubon commented as early as 1832 on the decline of the birds. The bird was rarely reported outside Florida after 1860. The last reported sighting east of the Mississippi River (except Florida) was in 1878 in Kentucky. By the turn of the century, it was restricted to the swamps of central Florida. The last known wild specimen was killed in
Okeechobee County, Florida
, in 1904, and the last captive bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918. This was the male specimen, Incas, that died within a year of his mate, Lady Jane.
[33]
Additional reports of the bird were made in Okeechobee County, Florida, until the late 1920s, but these are not supported by specimens. However two sets of eggs purportedly taken from active nests in 1927 are in the collection of the Florida Museum of Natural History, and genetic testing could prove the species was still breeding at that time.
[34]
[35]
Not until 1939, however, did the
American Ornithologists' Society
declare the Carolina parakeet to be extinct. The
IUCN
has listed the species as extinct since 1920.
In 1937, three parakeets resembling this species were sighted and filmed in the
Okefenokee Swamp
of
Georgia
. However, the American Ornithologists' Union analyzed the film and concluded that they had probably filmed feral parakeets.
[36]
A year later, in 1938, a flock of parakeets was apparently sighted by a group of experienced ornithologists in the swamps of the
Santee River
basin in
South Carolina
, but this sighting was doubted by most other ornithologists. The birds were never seen again after this sighting, and shortly after a portion of the area was destroyed to make way for power lines, making the species' continued existence unlikely.
[37]
About 720 skins and 16 skeletons are housed in museums around the world,
[38]
and analyzable DNA has been extracted from them.
[20]
Reasons for extinction
[
edit
]
The evidence is indicative that humans had at least a contributory role in the extinction of the Carolina parakeet, through a variety of means.
[39]
Chief was
deforestation
in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hunting played a significant role, both for decorative use of their colorful feathers, for example, adornment of women's hats, and for reduction of crop predation.
[1]
This was partially offset by the recognition of their value in controlling invasive cockleburs. Minor roles were played by capture for the pet trade and, as noted in
Pacific Standard
, by the introduction for crop pollination of
European honeybees
that competed for nest sites.
[40]
A factor that exacerbated their decline to extinction was the flocking behavior that led them to return to the vicinity of dead and dying birds (e.g., birds downed by hunting), enabling wholesale slaughter.
[39]
The final extinction of the species in the early years of the 20th century is somewhat of a mystery, as it happened so rapidly. Vigorous flocks with many juveniles and reproducing pairs were noted as late as 1896, and the birds were long-lived in captivity, but they had virtually disappeared by 1904. Sufficient nest sites remained intact, so deforestation was not the final cause. American ornithologist Noel F. Snyder
[8]
speculates that the most likely cause seems to be that the birds succumbed to poultry disease, although no recent or historical records exist of New World parrot populations being afflicted by domestic poultry diseases. The modern poultry scourge
Newcastle disease
was not detected until 1926 in Indonesia, and only a subacute form of it was reported in the United States in 1938. As well, genetic research on samples did not show any significant presence of bird viruses (though this does not solely rule out disease).
[32]
See also
[
edit
]
- Green parakeet
, the other living U.S. parrot, found in southern Texas
- Monk parakeet
, a prevalent feral parrot in the United States, often incorrectly presumed to be native
- Feral parrots
, other non-native parrots in the United States
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a reference to the 17th century English province of
Carolana
, called
Florida
by the Spaniards and
La Louisiane
by the French, a grant from King Charles I, which included the territory extending from the Atlantic Ocean to New Mexico, between the 30th and 36th parallels of latitude, which encompasses on the Atlantic Seaboard the modern states of North and South Carolina
- ^
ludovicianus
, Latinized "of Louisiana," a reference to the
Louisiana Territory
of the early 19th century, which does not include the modern state of Louisiana.
- ^
Sun parakeet, golden-capped parakeet and jenday parakeet together with sulphur-breasted parakeet are collectively referred to as the
Aratinga solstitialis complex
; they are so closely related that they are considered by some authorities to be subspecies of A. solstitialis.
- ^
A notable conflict exists over the weight of this bird, with most references reporting 280 g (about 10 oz), but that would make the bird an improbable 2.5 times as heavy as the similarly sized, closely related nenday parakeet, whose weight is given as 100?140 g (3.5?4.9 oz)
- ^
Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, N. Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, S. Carolina, S. Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, W. Virginia, Wisconsin
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
BirdLife International
(2021).
"
Conuropsis carolinensis
"
.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
.
2021
: e.T22685776A195444267.
doi
:
10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22685776A195444267.en
. Retrieved
20 November
2022
.
- ^
"NatureServe Explorer 2.0"
.
explorer.natureserve.org
. Retrieved
31 March
2022
.
- ^
"Thick-Billed Parrot Draft Recovery Plan Addendum"
. US Fish and Wildlife Service
. Retrieved
27 December
2020
.
- ^
Burgess, Harold H. (2007).
"Green parakeet, The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas"
.
txtbba.tamu.edu
. Retrieved
27 December
2020
.
- ^
Burgess, Harold H. (2006).
"Red-crowned parrot, The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas"
.
txtbba.tamu.edu
. Retrieved
27 December
2020
.
The Red-crowned parrot is a state-listed resident bird. They are both naturally occurring and escapees.
- ^
Shackelford, C., and C. Hanks. 2016. Red-crowned parrot conservation in Texas ? Background and roost survey results for 2016: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Austin, Texas.
- ^
BirdLife International
(2021).
"
Amazona viridigenalis
"
.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
.
2021
: e.T22686259A152441187
. Retrieved
20 November
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Snyder, Noel F.; Russell, Keith (2002). Poole, A.; Gill, F. (eds.).
"Carolina Parakeet (
Conuropsis carolinensis
)"
.
The Birds of North America
.
667
. Philadelphia, PA: The Birds of North America, Inc.
doi
:
10.2173/bna.667
.
- ^
Tallman, Dan A.; Swanson, David L.; Palmer, Jeffrey S. (2002).
Birds of South Dakota
. Midstates/Quality Quick Print. p. 181.
ISBN
0-929918-06-1
.
- ^
"The last Carolina Parakeet"
.
John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove
. 22 December 2015
. Retrieved
30 October
2018
.
- ^
Birkhead, Tim (2012).
Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird
. New York: Walker & Company. p.
123
.
ISBN
978-0-8027-7966-3
.
- ^
a
b
Phillips, Kristin Elise.
"Plumes of Poison"
.
Audubon Magazine
. Archived from
the original
on 28 January 2016
. Retrieved
8 August
2015
.
- ^
Coxe, Daniel (1722).
A description of the English province of Carolana
. London.
ISBN
9780665354502
.
- ^
Burgio, Kevin R.; Carlson, Colin J.; Tingley, Morgan W. (2017).
"Lazarus ecology: Recovering the distribution and migratory patterns of the extinct Carolina parakeet"
.
Ecology and Evolution
.
7
(14): 5467?5475.
Bibcode
:
2017EcoEv...7.5467B
.
doi
:
10.1002/ece3.3135
.
ISSN
2045-7758
.
PMC
5528215
.
PMID
28770082
.
- ^
Gelabert, Pere; Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela; Serres, Aitor; Manuel, Marc de; Renom, Pere; Margaryan, Ashot; Stiller, Josefin; de-Dios, Toni; Fang, Qi; Feng, Shaohong; Manosa, Santi (6 January 2020).
"Evolutionary History, Genomic Adaptation to Toxic Diet, and Extinction of the Carolina Parakeet"
.
Current Biology
.
30
(1): 108?114.e5.
Bibcode
:
2020CBio...30E.108G
.
doi
:
10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.066
.
hdl
:
10230/43920
.
ISSN
0960-9822
.
PMID
31839456
.
- ^
a
b
Kirchman, Jeremy J.; Schirtzinger, Erin E.; Wright, Timothy F. (2012).
"Phylogenetic relationships of the extinct Carolina Parakeet (
Conuropsis carolinensis
) inferred from DNA sequence data"
(PDF)
.
The Auk
.
129
(2): 197?204.
doi
:
10.1525/auk.2012.11259
.
S2CID
86659430
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 19 September 2012
. Retrieved
22 September
2012
.
- ^
Bennu, Devorah (19 September 2012).
"Extinct Carolina parakeet gives glimpse into evolution of American parrots"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
22 September
2012
.
- ^
a
b
Wetmore, Alexander
(1926).
"Descriptions of additional fossil birds from the Miocene of Nebraska"
(PDF)
.
American Museum Novitates
(211): 1?5.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 12 June 2007.
- ^
Olson, Storrs L.
(1985). "The fossil record of birds. Section VIII. K. Psittaciformes". In Farner, Donald S.; King, James R.; Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.).
Avian Biology
. Vol. 8. New York:
Academic Press
. pp. 120?121.
ISBN
0-12-249408-3
.
- ^
a
b
Katz, Brigit.
"The Extinction of This U.S. Parrot Was Quick and Driven by Humans"
.
Smithsonian Magazine
. Retrieved
14 July
2023
.
- ^
NatureServe,
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, 2005; Fuller, 2001; Mauler, 2001; Rising, 2004; Snyder and Russell, 2002
- ^
a
b
Griggs, Jack L. (1997).
American Bird Conservancy's Field Guide to All the Birds of North America
. New York: HarperPerennial.
ISBN
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.
- ^
Battaglia, L.L.; Conner, W.H. (2018). "Old-growth and mature remnant floodplain forests of the southeastern United States".
Ecology and Recovery of Eastern Old-Growth Forests
. Washington, DC: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics. pp. 21?37.
- ^
Godfrey, W. Earl (1986).
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National Museum of Natural History
. p. 303.
ISBN
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.
- ^
Amrhein, Kelly (2006). Dewey, Tanya; Fraser, Ann (eds.).
"
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"
.
Animal Diversity Web
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Gnam, Rosemarie (5 April 2023).
"Carolina Parakeet"
.
Ecology Center
. Retrieved
26 May
2023
.
- ^
"Conuropsis carolinensis (Carolina parakeet)"
.
Animal Diversity Web
.
- ^
"Cocklebur (
Xanthium strumarium
L.)"
. University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana: Veterinary Medicine Library. Archived from
the original
on 8 September 2015
. Retrieved
8 August
2015
.
- ^
"Carolina Parakeet: Removal of a "Menace"
"
.
All About Birds
. 15 April 2008
. Retrieved
25 January
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.
- ^
"The last Carolina Parakeet"
. 22 December 2015.
- ^
Wright, Albert (July 1912).
"Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet"
.
The Auk
.
29
(3): 343?363.
doi
:
10.2307/4071042
.
JSTOR
4071042
.
- ^
a
b
Katz, Brigit.
"The Extinction of This U.S. Parrot Was Quick and Driven by Humans"
.
Smithsonian Magazine
. Retrieved
18 October
2021
.
- ^
Snyder, Noel (June 2004).
The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird
. Princeton University Press.
- ^
Snyder, Noel (June 2004).
The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird
. Princeton University Press.
- ^
Webber, Tom.
"Carolina Parakeet"
.
Florida Museum
.
- ^
Cokinos, Christopher (2009).
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds
. Penguin. p. 41.
- ^
McClung, Robert M. (1994).
Lost Wild America: The Story of Our Extinct and Vanishing Wildlife
. Linnet Books.
ISBN
978-0208023599
.
- ^
Luther, Dieter (1996).
Die ausgestorbenen Vogel der Welt
[
The extinct birds of the world
] (in German) (4th ed.). Heidelberg: Westarp-Wissenschaften.
ISBN
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.
- ^
a
b
"The last Carolina Parakeet"
. 22 December 2015.
- ^
Cokinos, Christopher (21 February 2018).
"Happy Global Last Resort Day"
.
Pacific Standard
. Retrieved
18 January
2019
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Cokinos, Christopher (2009)
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds
(Chapter 1: Carolina Parakeet), Tarcher
ISBN
978-1585427222
- Snyder, Noel (2004)
The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird
, Princeton University Press
ISBN
978-0691117959
- Julian P. Hume, Michael Walters (2012)
Extinct Birds
(p. 186), Poyser Monographs
ISBN
978-1408157251
External links
[
edit
]
Genera of
parrots
and their extinct allies
|
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|
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Conuropsis carolinensis
| |
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Psittacus carolinensis
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