While we include these "sightings" in our dataset, they are flagged as likely invalid.Īdding to the lore surrounding Carolina parakeet observations, as late as the 1940s, ornithologist Oscar Bayard claimed that he knew of a remnant population of Carolina parakeets in rural Florida, but he refused to tell anyone where the birds were for fear that people would trap or kill the birds ( Snyder 2004). Fraud surrounding the Carolina parakeet was not uncommon, as evidenced by a video of living parrots painted to look like Carolina parakeets mixed in with taxidermied specimens that began circulating in the 1950s ( Snyder et al. ![]() As an example, included in the dataset is the date and location of one such potentially fradulant clutch of eggs, collected by a prolific egg collector and dealer, Charles Doe, who was notorious for passing off eggs of one species for those of other, less rare species ( Snyder 2004, Snyder and Russell 2002). However, some sightings may be fraudulent, as collectors from the early 20th century would often pay high prices for the eggs of a nearly extinct bird. Within our dataset, we include observations gleaned from a wide variety of sources, including hunters' logs, the correspondence of well-known historical figures including Thomas Jefferson ( Jefferson 1894) and the explorers Lewis and Clark ( Lewis and Clark 1904), and even letters to the editor of local newspapers. A vast majority of observations were detailed, with primary sources, in McKinley's numerous publications from 1959 to 1985 (e.g. It was only through Daniel McKinley's efforts were we able to compile this dataset. To facilitate more research on this understudied, extinct species, we present the most detailed dataset yet compiled of georeferenced observations and specimens of the Carolina parakeet, ranging from 1564 to 1944. 2012) and the range size and migratory behavior ( Burgio et al. ![]() However, with the progression of increasingly sophisticated analytical approaches, such as genetic sequencing and species distribution modeling, researchers are starting to provide new insights into Carolina parakeets' evolutionary relationships within the parrot phylogeny ( Kirchman et al. McKinley 1965, McKinley and Hardy 1985) and Noel Snyder ( Snyder and Russell 2002, Snyder 2004), there has been relatively little research on the Carolina parakeet since the last captive individual died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. Aside from the efforts of two individual researchers, Daniel McKinley (e.g. 2011), or Bachman's warbler ( Vermivora bachmanii, e.g. Stanton 2014), the ivory-billed woodpecker ( Campephilus principalis, e.g. Despite being a charismatic and colorful bird, the Carolina parakeet has not received as much attention as other recently extinct North American birds, such as the passenger pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius, e.g. ![]() 2010), though the proximate and ultimate causes of their extinction remain unknown. The species likely went extinct in the first half of the 20th century ( Snyder and Russell 2002, Elphick et al. The Carolina parakeet ( Conuropsis carolinesis) was the only endemic North American parrot species north of the Rio Grande.
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