Psittaculidae is a family of
parrots
Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...
, commonly known as Old World parrots, though this term is a
misnomer
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the nam ...
, as not all its members occur in the
Old World
The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...
and
Psittacinae
Psittacinae (Afrotropical parrots, African parrots, or Old World parrots) is a subfamily (biology), subfamily of parrots, native to sub-Saharan Africa, which include twelve species and two Extant taxon, extant genus, genera. Among the species is ...
also occurs in the Old World. It consists of six subfamilies:
Psittrichasinae,
Agapornithinae
Agapornithinae is a subfamily of Parrot, psittacine birds, one of the five subfamilies that make up the family Psittaculidae.Leo Joseph, Alicia Toon, Erin E. Schirtzinger, Timothy F. Wright, Richard Schodde. 2012. A revised nomenclature and class ...
,
Loriinae
Loriinae is a subfamily of Parrot, psittacine birds, one of the six subfamilies that make up the family Psittaculidae. It consists of three tribes, the lories and lorikeets (Loriini), the budgerigar (Melopsittacini) and the fig parrots (Cyclopsit ...
,
Platycercinae
Platycercinae is a subfamily of birds belonging to the family Psittaculidae that inhabit Oceania. It consists of two tribes, the ground parrots and allies (Pezoporini) and the many species of broad-tailed parrot (Platycercini).
Genera
Tribe Pezo ...
,
Psittacellinae
Tiger parrots are members of the genus ''Psittacella'' (the only genus in the subfamily Psittacellinae) in the family Psittaculidae, named for their tiger-striped backs. Established by Hermann Schlegel in 1871, the genus contains the following s ...
and
Psittaculinae
The parrot subfamily Psittaculinae consists of three tribes: the Polytelini with three genera, the Psittaculini or Asian psittacines, and the pygmy parrots of the Micropsittini tribe.Joseph L., Alicia Toon, Erin E. Schirtzinger, Timothy F. Wright, ...
.
Taxonomy
The following cladogram shows how the family Psittaculidae relates to the three other families in the order
Psittaciformes. The tree is based on the work by Leo Joseph and collaborators published in 2012 but with the choice of families and the number of species in each family taken from the list maintained by
Frank Gill,
Pamela Rasmussen
Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithology, ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State Uni ...
and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), now the
International Ornithologists' Union
The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology
Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", ...
.
Joseph and collaborators proposed that the genera ''
Psittrichas
Pesquet's parrot (''Psittrichas fulgidus''), also known as the Dracula parrot or as the vulturine parrot (leading to easy confusion with '' Pyrilia vulturina'' from Brazil), is a member of the Old World parrot family Psittaculidae. It is the onl ...
'' and ''
Coracopsis '' should be placed in their own family, Psittrichasidae.
[ This proposal has not been adopted by taxonomists involved in curating lists of the world birds and instead these two genera are included in an expanded family Psittaculidae.][ The following ]cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...
showing the generic relationships is based on a molecular phylogenetic study by Brian Smith and collaborators that was published in 2023. In the analysis two pairs of genera were found not to be monophyletic
In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria:
# the grouping contains its own most recent co ...
. These were ''Psittacula
''Psittacula'', also known as Afro-Asian ring-necked parrots, is a genus of parrots from Africa and Southeast Asia. It is a widespread group with a clear concentration of species in south Asia, but also with representatives in Africa and the isla ...
'' with ''Tanygnathus
''Tanygnathus'' is a genus of parrots in the Psittaculini tribe, of the superfamily of true parrots, Psittacoidea (true parrots).
Its species are native to Southeast Asia and Melanesia.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Tanygnathus'' was introduced by the G ...
'' and ''Cyclopsitta
''Cyclopsitta'' is a genus of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. Its four species are native to the Australian continent, primarily the island of New Guinea.
The genus name ''Cyclopsitta'' is a combination of the Greek name of the mythical Cy ...
'' with ''Psittaculirostris
''Psittaculirostris'' is a genus of parrots in the family Psittaculidae found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the east ...
''.[
]
References
Parrots
Taxa named by Nicholas Aylward Vigors
Long stubs with short prose
{{parrot-stub