Cyanoramphus
Encyclopedia
Cyanoramphus is a genus of parakeet
Parakeet
Parakeet is a term for any one of a large number of unrelated small to medium sized species of parrot, that generally have long tail feathers...

s native to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and islands of the southern Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. The New Zealand forms are often referred to as kākāriki
Kakariki
The three species of Kākāriki or New Zealand parakeets are the most common species of parakeet in the genus Cyanoramphus, family Psittacidae. The birds' Māori name, which is the most commonly used, means "small parrot"....

. They are small to medium sized parakeets with long tails and predominately green plumage
Plumage
Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season. Within species there can also be a...

. Most species are forest species, although several of the subantarctic species live in open grassland. The genus formerly had a disjunct distribution, with two species found in the Society Islands
Society Islands
The Society Islands are a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. They are politically part of French Polynesia. The archipelago is generally believed to have been named by Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society, the sponsor of the first British scientific survey of the islands;...

 and the majority of the genus ranging from New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 to Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...

, but absent from the 4100 km in between. Despite many fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 birds being found in the islands between these two areas being found none of these were of undescribed Cyanoramphus species.

Like many other species of birds the Cyanoramphus parakeets have suffered from changes brought about by humans. The two species from the Society Islands, the Black-fronted Parakeet
Black-fronted Parakeet
The extinct Black-fronted Parakeet or Tahiti Parakeet was endemic to the Pacific island of Tahiti. Its native name was simply ’ā’ā according to Latham though White gives "aa-maha"....

 and the Society Parakeet
Society Parakeet
The Society Parakeet is an extinct parakeet of the genus Cyanoramphus.-Description:It reached a length of 25 cm. Its head was chocolate brown. The bill showed a pale bluish grey hue and had a black tip. The back and the wings were coloured brown. The lower back and the tail exhibited a...

, have become extinct as have the subspecies from Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...

 and Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...

, as well as an undescribed form from Campbell Island
Campbell Island, New Zealand
Campbell Island is a remote, subantarctic island of New Zealand and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers of the group's , and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the...

. One species, the Orange-fronted Parakeet
Malherbe's Parakeet
The Malherbe's Parakeet, Cyanoramphus malherbi, is a small parrot endemic to New Zealand. In New Zealand it is commonly known as the Orange-fronted Parakeet, a name it shares with a species from Middle America...

 (C. malherbi), is critically endangered
Critically endangered
Version 2010.3 of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 3744 Critically Endangered species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and subpopulations.Critically Endangered by kingdom:*1993 Animalia*2 Fungi*1745 Plantae*4 Protista-References:...

 while most other species are endangered or vulnerable. Habitat loss and introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 are considered responsible for the declines and extinctions.

Species

Phylogeny of Cyanoramphus
The list currently accepted of Cyanoramphus taxa, following Boon et al. (2001) is:
  • Yellow-crowned Parakeet
    Yellow-crowned Parakeet
    The Yellow-crowned Parakeet, Cyanoramphus auriceps, is a species of parakeet endemic to the islands of New Zealand. The species is found across the main three islands of New Zealand, North Island, South Island and Stewart Island/Rakiura, as well as on the subantarctic Auckland Islands...

     C. auriceps
  • Malherbe's Parakeet
    Malherbe's Parakeet
    The Malherbe's Parakeet, Cyanoramphus malherbi, is a small parrot endemic to New Zealand. In New Zealand it is commonly known as the Orange-fronted Parakeet, a name it shares with a species from Middle America...

     or Orange-fronted Parakeet C. malherbi
  • Red-crowned Parakeet
    Red-crowned Parakeet
    The Red-crowned Parakeet, Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae, is a small species of parrot from New Zealand. The species was once lumped with several other parrots from New Zealand's outlying islands, New Caledonia and Norfolk Island, but these have now been afforded full species status...

     C. novaezelandiae
    • New Zealand Red-crowned Parakeet C. novaezelandiae novaezelandiae
    • Chatham Island Red-crowned Parakeet C. novaezelandiae chathamensis
    • Kermadec Red-crowned Parakeet
      Kermadec Red-crowned Parakeet
      The Kermadec Red-crowned Parakeet , also known as the Kermadec Red-fronted Parakeet or Kermadec Parakeet, is a parrot endemic to New Zealand's Kermadec Islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. It is a subspecies of the Red-fronted Parakeet, and sometimes considered a full species...

       C. novaezelandiae cyanurus
    • Lord Howe Red-crowned Parakeet
      Lord Howe Red-crowned Parakeet
      The Lord Howe Red-crowned Parakeet , also known as the Lord Howe Red-fronted Parakeet, was a parrot endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, part of New South Wales, Australia...

       C. novaezelandiae subflavescens
  • Chatham Parakeet C. forbesi (formerly considered a subspecies of C. auriceps).
  • Antipodes Parakeet C. unicolor
  • Black-fronted Parakeet
    Black-fronted Parakeet
    The extinct Black-fronted Parakeet or Tahiti Parakeet was endemic to the Pacific island of Tahiti. Its native name was simply ’ā’ā according to Latham though White gives "aa-maha"....

     C. zealandicus†
  • Macquarie Parakeet C. erythrotis † (formerly considered a subspecies of C. novaezelandiae)
  • Reischek's Parakeet
    Reischek's Parakeet
    Reischek’s Parakeet is a small green parrot confined to 21 km2 Antipodes Island, one of New Zealand’s subantarctic islands, which it shares with a congener, the larger Antipodes Island Parakeet.-Taxonomy:...

     C. hochstetteri (formerly considered a subspecies of C. novaezelandiae).
  • New Caledonian Parakeet C. saisseti (formerly considered a subspecies of C. novaezelandiae).
  • Norfolk Parakeet C. cooki (formerly considered a subspecies of C. novaezelandiae).
  • Society Parakeet
    Society Parakeet
    The Society Parakeet is an extinct parakeet of the genus Cyanoramphus.-Description:It reached a length of 25 cm. Its head was chocolate brown. The bill showed a pale bluish grey hue and had a black tip. The back and the wings were coloured brown. The lower back and the tail exhibited a...

     C. ulietanus†


The two forms of C. erythrotis are usually considered to be distinct species: the single specimen believed to be from Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island
Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...

 (Canterbury Museum specimen AV2099, O'Connor catalog 369) in Boon et al.s analysis has turned out to be from the Antipodes Islands
Antipodes Islands
The Antipodes Islands are inhospitable volcanic islands to the south of—and territorially part of—New Zealand...

population (hochstetteri) instead.
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