Psittacidae
Family of birds
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Through South America and Extinction
Distribution
All of the parrot species in this family are found in tropical and subtropical zones and inhabit Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean islands, and sub-Saharan Africa. Three parrots, one extinct and another extirpated, once inhabited the United States.
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Evolutionary history
This family probably had its origin early in the Paleogene period, 66–23 million years ago (Mya), after the western half of Gondwana had separated into the continents of Africa and South America, before the divergence of African and New World lineages around 30–35 Mya. The New World parrots, and by implication Old World parrots, last shared a common ancestor with the Australian cockatoos in the family the Cacatuidae approximately 33 Mya.
The data place most of the diversification of psittaciformes around 40 Mya, after the separation of Australia from West Antarctica and South America. Divergence of the Psittacidae from the ancestral parrots resulted from a common radiation event from what was then West Antarctica into South America, then Africa, via late Cretaceous land bridges that survived through the Paleogene.
Taxonomy
The family Psittacidae was introduced (as Psittacea) by French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. The recently revised taxonomy of the family Psittacidae, based on molecular studies, recognizes the sister clade relationship of the Old World Psittacini and New World Arini tribes of subfamily Psittacinae, which have been raised to subfamily ranking and renamed Psittacinae and Arinae. Subfamily Loriinae and the other tribes of subfamily Psittacinae are now placed in superfamily Psittacoidea of all true parrots, which includes family Psittacidae.
The following phylogeny shows how the family Psittacidae 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 and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), now the International Ornithologists' Union.
The family contains 179 species and is divided into 37 genera. Included are four species that have become extinct in historical times: the glaucous macaw, the Carolina parakeet, the Cuban macaw and the Puerto Rican parakeet. The following cladogram is based on a phylogenetic study by Brian Smith and collaborators that was published in 2023. In the analysis the genera Nannopsittaca, Bolborhynchus and Psilopsiagon were found not to be monophyletic. The number of species in each genus is taken from the IOC list.
- Subfamily Psittacinae
- Genus Psittacus – African grey parrots (two species)
- Genus Poicephalus
- Genus Bavaripsitta†
- Subfamily Arinae
- Tribe Arini – macaws and parakeets
- Genus Anodorhynchus
- Genus Cyanopsitta
- Genus Ara
- Genus Orthopsittaca
- Genus Primolius
- Genus Diopsittaca
- Genus Rhynchopsitta
- Genus Ognorhynchus
- Genus Guaruba
- Genus Leptosittaca
- Genus Psittacara
- Genus Aratinga
- Genus Eupsittula
- Genus Thectocercus
- Genus Cyanoliseus
- Genus Pyrrhura
- Genus Enicognathus
- Genus Conuropsis†
- Tribe Androglossini – Amazon and related parrots
- Clade (proposed tribe Amoropsittacini)
- Genus Nannopsittaca
- Genus Psilopsiagon
- Genus Bolborhynchus
- Genus Touit
- Clade (proposed tribe Forpini) – parrotlets
- Genus Forpus
- Clade including Arini
- Genus Pionites – caiques (four species)
- Genus Deroptyus – red-fan parrot
- Clade including Androglossini
- Genus Hapalopsittaca
- Genus Brotogeris
- Genus Myiopsitta
- Tribe Arini – macaws and parakeets