Order PSITTACIFORMES

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Burton; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.692.1133; http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/sites/all/files/282_Crimson+Rosella.pdf

Distinctive, familiar, and often strikingly coloured birds, with characteristic shape and structure. Often highly conspicuous. Small to large, ranging in size from tiny pygmy-parrots Micropsitta ofN ew Guinea, the Moluccas and the Solomon Is (c. 9 em in length and weighing 10-18 g) to large macaws of South America (up to c. 1m in total length including tail, and weighing up to 1.7 kg), large cockatoos (e.g. Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii; up to 60 em in total length including tail, and weighing up to 870 g), and flightless Kakapo Strigops habroptilus ofNZ (up to 64 em in total length, including tail, and weighing up to 2 kg). Third largest non-passerine order. Roughly 329-356 species in 76-93 genera, distributed on all continents except Antarctica; most are tropical; distributed widely in s. hemisphere, including some subantarctic islands ofHANZAB region; inn. hemisphere occur as far N as Safed Koh Mts in e. Afghanistan (Slaty-headed Parakeet Psittacula himalayana). Greatest morphological and ecological diversity in A'asia and probably originated in A ' asian sector of Gondwana, radiating from subtropical rainforests (Hornberger 1991; see also Forshaw & Cooper 1989). In HANZAB region, 60 species in 27 genera. Appear to lack close living relatives, and nearest allies difficult to determine. Suggested that nearest allies are Columbiformes (pigeons) (Burton 1974; Forshaw & Cooper 1989), but this rejected by others (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990). Recent DNA-DNA hybridization studies suggest they should be placed between cuckoos and swifts (see Collar 1997; Rowley 1997). Other groups suggested as close allies include hawks, owls and piciforms (see Sibley & Ahlquist 1990). Recent works (e.g.