Seychelles Parakeet

Seychelles Parakeet ( Psittacula wardi )

The Seychelles Parakeet ( Psittacula wardi ) is an extinct species of parrot from the genus of precious parakeets. He was endemic to the Seychelles. The specific epithet refers to Swinburne Ward, the British civil commissioner in the Seychelles from 1862 to 1868.

Features

The Seychelles parakeet reached a length of 41 centimeters. In the male, the head was green. The back of the head and the neck were blue washed out. The chin and a vague line between eyes and cere were black, as well as a broad cheek stripe that ran from the beak to the back of the neck. The abdomen was greenish - yellow. On the elytra was a purplish- red spots. The top of the middle tail feathers was blue with yellow tips. The outer tail feathers were green. The tail lower ceilings were yellowish. The beak was red with a yellow tip. The iris was yellowish. The feet were gray. The female looked similar to the male. It differed in the absence of the black cheeks Streifs as well as in the all-black beak coloration.

The Seychelles parakeet was smaller and had a stronger beak as the Alexandrine Parakeet. Other distinguishing features were the purple shoulder patches and the lack of pink neck ribbon.

Occurrence

The Seychelles parakeet arrived on the islands of Mahé, Silhouette and probably also on Praslin.

Extinction

Already in the scientific first description in 1867, listed Edward Newton, the Seychelles Parakeet was almost exterminated. In March 1880 and in June 1881 the bird collector HM Warry killed the last three specimens documented in the wilderness ( two females and a juvenile male). The last known specimen died in 1883 on the island of Silhouette in captivity. When the British ornithologist Michael John Nicoll 1906, the Seychelles visited, he could no longer detectable copy. The forests where the species once occurred, coconut plantations were replaced. In addition, the parakeets were shot by farmers because they were causing damage in the corn fields. In total there are ten specimens in museum collections.

System

The Seychelles parakeet was considered due to the similar neck bands often as a subspecies of Alexander parakeet (Psittacula eupatria ). However, it is not known whether in fact a close kinship with the Alexandrine Parakeet is present since no skeleton from the Seychelles Parakeet exists and a DNA analysis of the existing museum material was never carried out.