Species

Justification
This species formerly occurred in southeastern USA, but it is now Extinct, primarily as a result of persecution. The last wild records are of the subspecies ludoviciana in 1910.

Taxonomic source(s)
AOU. 1998. Check-list of North American birds. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
Brooks, T. 2000. Extinct species. In: BirdLife International (ed.), Threatened birds of the world, pp. 701-708. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, U.K.
Sibley, C. G.; Monroe, B. L. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA.

Distribution and population
Conuropsis carolinensis was endemic to the eastern USA, with the nominate race ranging from Florida to Virginia, and ludovicianus, through the Mississippi-Missouri drainage (Forshaw and Cooper 1989). Birds were still common at the beginning of the 19th century but, in 1832, Audubon noted their decline, which followed increasing human settlement moving inland from the east (Saikku 1991). The last specimens were collected by Chapman near Lake Okeechobee, Florida, in 1904, although rumours of its survival persisted into the 1930s (McKinley 1985). The last captive bird died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918 (Joines 1985).

Ecology
Birds were wide-ranging but their typical habitat was cypress and sycamore trees along rivers and swamps (Saikku 1991).

Threats
The main causes of the species's extinction were persecution (for food, crop protection, aviculture and the millinery trade), and deforestation (especially of the bottomlands), probably compounded by its gregarious nature (Saikku 1991), and by competition with introduced bees (McKinley 1960).

References
McKinley, D. 1960. The Carolina Parakeet in pioneer Missouri. Wilson Bulletin 72: 274-287.

McKinley, D. 1985. The Carolina Parakeet in Florida. Florida Ornithological Society Special Publication: 1-64.

Joines, S. 1985. America's extinct parrot. ZooNooz 58: 4-9.

Forshaw, J. M.; Cooper, W. T. 1989. Parrots of the world. Blandford Press, London.

Saikku, M. 1991. The extinction of the Carolina Parakeet. Environment and History 14: 1-18.

Text account compilers
Brooks, T., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S.

IUCN Red List evaluators
Butchart, S., Symes, A.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2013) Species factsheet: Conuropsis carolinensis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 18/06/2013. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2013) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 18/06/2013.

This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.

To provide new information to update this factsheet or to correct any errors, please email BirdLife

To contribute to discussions on the evaluation of the IUCN Red List status of Globally Threatened Birds, please visit BirdLife's Globally Threatened Bird Forums.

Additional resources for this species

0