User:Abyssal/Prehistory of Africa/Prehistory articles/31

Artistic restoration of a Rodrigues parrot (above)

The Rodrigues parrot (Necropsittacus rodricanus) is an extinct parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. It is unclear what other species it is most closely related to, but it has been classified as a member of the tribe Psittaculini, along with other Mascarene parrots. It had similarities with the broad-billed parrot, and may have been closely related.

The Rodrigues parrot was green, and had a proportionally large head and beak along with a long tail. Its exact size is unknown, but it may have been around 50 cm (20 in) long. It may have looked similar to the great-billed parrot. It frequented and nested on islets off southern Rodrigues to avoid introduced rats, and fed on the seeds of the Fernelia buxifolia shrub. The species is known from subfossil bones and from mentions in three contemporary accounts. It was last mentioned in 1761, and probably went extinct soon after, probably due to a combination of predation by rats, deforestation, and hunting by humans. (see more...)