Parrots

Parrots, also known as psittacines /'s?t?sa?nz/,[2][3] are birds of the roughly

372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes,[4] found in most
tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamil
ies: the Psittacoidea ("true" parrots), the Cacatuoidea (cockatoos) and the Stri
gopoidea (New Zealand parrots).[5] Parrots have a generally pantropical distribu
tion with several species inhabiting temperate regions in the Southern Hemispher
e as well. The greatest diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia
.
Characteristic features of parrots include a strong, curved bill, an upright sta
nce, strong legs, and clawed zygodactyl feet. Many parrots are vividly coloured,
and some are multi-coloured. Most parrots exhibit little or no sexual dimorphis
m. They form the most variably sized bird order in terms of length.
The most important components of most parrots' diets are seeds, nuts, fruit, bud
s and other plant material. A few species sometimes eat animals and carrion, whi
le the lories and lorikeets are specialised for feeding on floral nectar and sof
t fruits. Almost all parrots nest in tree hollows (or nest boxes in captivity),
and lay white eggs from which hatch altricial (helpless) young.
Parrots, along with ravens, crows, jays and magpies, are among the most intellig
ent birds, and the ability of some species to imitate human voices enhances thei
r popularity as pets. Trapping wild parrots for the pet trade, as well as huntin
g, habitat loss and competition from invasive species, has diminished wild popul
ations, with parrots being subjected to more exploitation than any other group o
f birds.[6] Measures taken to conserve the habitats of some high-profile charism
atic species have also protected many of the less charismatic species living in
the same ecosystems.[7]

Blue-and-yellow macaw eating a walnut held in its foot
Psittaciform diversity in South America and Australasia suggests that the order
may have evolved in Gondwanaland, centred in Australasia.[8] The scarcity of par
rots in the fossil record, however, presents difficulties in confirming the hypo
thesis.
A single 15 mm (0.6 in) fragment from a large lower bill (UCMP 143274), found in
deposits from the Lance Creek Formation in Niobrara County, Wyoming, had been t
hought to be the oldest parrot fossil and is presumed to have originated from th
e Late Cretaceous period, which makes it about 70 Ma (million years ago).[9] Oth
er studies suggest that this fossil is not from a bird, but from a caenagnathid
theropod or a non-avian dinosaur with a birdlike beak.[10][11]
It is now generally assumed that the Psittaciformes, or their common ancestors w
ith several related bird orders, were present somewhere in the world around the
CretaceousPaleogene extinction event (K-Pg extinction), some 66 Ma. If so, they p
robably had not evolved their morphological autapomorphies yet, but were general
ised arboreal birds, roughly similar (though not necessarily closely related) to
today's potoos or frogmouths (see also Palaeopsittacus below). Though these bir
ds (Cypselomorphae) are a phylogenetically challenging group, they seem at least
closer to the parrot ancestors than, for example, the modern aquatic birds (Aeq
uornithes). The combined evidence supported the hypothesis of Psittaciformes bei
ng "near passerines", i.e. the mostly land-living birds that emerged in close pr
oximity to the K-Pg extinction. Indeed, analysis of transposable element inserti
ons observed in the genomes of passerines and parrots, but not in the genomes of
other birds, provides strong evidence that parrots are the sister group of pass
erines, forming a clade Psittacopasserae, to the exclusion of the next closest g
roup, the falcons.[12]
Europe is the origin of the first undeniable parrot fossils, which date from abo
ut 50 Ma. The climate there and then was tropical, consistent with the Paleocene
-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Initially, a neoavian named Mopsitta tanta, uncovered i
n Denmark's Early Eocene Fur Formation and dated to 54 Ma, was assigned to the P
sittaciformes; it was described from a single humerus.[13] However, the rather n
ondescript bone is not unequivocally psittaciform, and more recently it was poin
ted out that it may rather belong to a newly discovered ibis of the genus Rhynch
aeites, whose fossil legs were found in the same deposits.

The feathers of a yellow-headed amazon. The blue component of the green coloura
tion is due to light scattering while the yellow is due to pigment.
Fossils assignable to Psittaciformes (though not yet the present-day parrots) da
te from slightly later in the Eocene, starting around 50 Ma. Several fairly comp
lete skeletons of parrot-like birds have been found in England and Germany.[14]
Some uncertainty remains, but on the whole it seems more likely that these are n
ot direct ancestors of the modern parrots, but related lineages which evolved in
the Northern Hemisphere and have since died out. These are probably not "missin
g links" between ancestral and modern parrots, but rather psittaciform lineages
that evolved parallel to true parrots and cockatoos and had their own peculiar a
utapomorphies:
Psittacopes (Early/Middle Eocene of Geiseltal, Germany)basal[citation needed]
Serudaptuspseudasturid or psittacid[citation needed]
Pseudasturidae (Halcyornithidae may be correct name) Pseudasturides formerly Pse
udastur
Vastanavidae Vastanavis (Early Eocene of Vastan, India)
Quercypsittidae Quercypsitta (Late Eocene)
The earliest records of modern parrots date to about 2320 Ma and are also from Eu
rope. Subsequently, the fossil recordagain mainly from Europeconsists of bones cle
arly recognisable as belonging to parrots of modern type. The Southern Hemispher
e does not have nearly as rich a fossil record for the period of interest as the
Northern, and contains no known parrot-like remains earlier than the early to m
iddle Miocene, around 20 Ma. At this point, however, is found the first unambigu
ous parrot fossil (as opposed to a parrot-like one), an upper jaw which is indis
tinguishable from that of modern cockatoos. A few modern genera are tentatively
dated to a Miocene origin, but their unequivocal record stretches back only some
5 million years (see genus articles for more).

Fossil skull of a presumed parrot relative from the Eocene Green River Formatio
n in Wyoming.
The named fossil genera of parrots are probably all in the Psittacidae or close
to its ancestry:
Archaeopsittacus (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene)
Xenopsitta (Early Miocene of Czechia)
Psittacidae gen. et spp. indet. (Bathans Early/Middle Miocene of Otago, New Zeal
and)several species
Bavaripsitta (Middle Miocene of Steinberg, Germany)
Psittacidae gen. et sp. indet. (Middle Miocene of France)erroneously placed in Pa
rarallus dispar, includes "Psittacus" lartetianus
Some Paleogene fossils are not unequivocally accepted to be of psittaciforms:
Palaeopsittacus (Early Middle Eocene of NW Europe)caprimulgiform (podargid)[citat
ion needed] or quercypsittid[citation needed]
"Precursor" (Early Eocene)part of this apparent chimera seems to be of a pseudast
urid or psittacid
Pulchrapollia (Early Eocene)includes "Primobucco" olsonipsittaciform (pseudasturid
or psittacid)[citation needed]
Molecular studies suggest that parrots evolved approximately 59 Ma (range 6651 Ma
) in Gondwanaland.[15] The three major clades of Neotropical parrots originated
about 50 Ma (range 5741 Ma).