Thick-billed parrot
| Thick-billed parrot | |
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| At Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, United States | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Arinae |
| Tribe: | Arini |
| Genus: |
Rhynchopsitta Bonaparte, 1854 |
| Species: | R. pachyrhyncha |
| Binomial name | |
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Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha Swainson, 1827 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Macrocercus pachyrhynchus |
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Macrocercus pachyrhynchus
Sittace pachyrhynchus
Rhynchopsittacus pachyrhynchus
The thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) is a medium-sized green and red parrot found in Mexico, that formerly ranged into the southwestern United States. Its position in parrot phylogeny is the subject of ongoing discussion; it is sometimes referred to as thick-billed macaw or thick-billed conure. In Mexico, it is locally called guacamaya ("macaw") or cotorra serrana ("mountain parrot"). Classified internationally as Endangered through IUCN, the thick-billed parrot's decline has been central to multiple controversies over wildlife management.
Pachyrhyncha is currently classified as a species of the genus Rhynchopsitta of macaw-like thick-billed parrots of which there are two extant species (the other being the maroon-fronted parrot), and one extinct species. However, recent molecular DNA studies indicate that pachyrhyncha and its sister species terrisi in genus Rhynchopsitta are conspecific subspecies.Rhynchopsitta is one of numerous genera of New World long-tailed parrots in tribe Arini, which also includes the Central and South American macaws. Tribe Arini together with the amazonian parrots and a few miscellaneous genera make up subfamily Arinae of Neotropical parrots in the family Psittacidae of the true parrots.
The bird was first described by English naturalist and illustrator William John Swainson who designated it Macrocercus pachyrhynchus in Philosophical Magazine, new ser., 1, no. 6, p. 439 (1827). Swainson evidently thought that because of its size and heavy beak, that it was a macaw (at that time, any parrot of the genus Sittace, or Macrocercus). It was later placed in its own genus Rhynchopsitta by French naturalist Prince Charles Bonaparte in 1854. The name is derived from Ancient Greek rhynchos ("beak") and psittakos ("parrot") and Greek pachy- ("thick") and rhynchos ("beak"), hence a "thick-beaked parrot".
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Wikipedia