Psittacidae

Psittacidae
The family Psittacidae or holotropical parrots is one of three families of true parrots. It comprises the 12 species of subfamily Psittacinae (the Old World or Afrotropical parrots) and 167 of subfamily Arinae (the New World or Neotropical parrots) including several species that have gone extinct in recent centuries. Some of the most iconic birds in the world are represented here, such as the blue-and-yellow macaw among the New World parrots and the grey parrot among the Old World parrots.
Distribution
All of the parrot species in this family are found in tropical and subtropical zones and inhabit Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean islands, sub-Saharan Africa, the island of Madagascar, the Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania. Three parrots, one extinct and another extirpated, inhabit the United States.
Evolutionary history
This family probably had its origin early in the Paleogene period, 66–23 million years ago (Mya), after the western half of Gondwana had separated into the continents of Africa and South America, before the divergence of African and New World lineages around 30–35 Mya. The New World parrots, and by implication Old World parrots, last shared a common ancestor with the Australian cockatoos in the family the Cacatuidae approximately 33 Mya.
The data place most of the diversification of psittaciformes around 40 Mya, after the separation of Australia from West Antarctica and South America. Divergence of the Psittacidae from the ancestral parrots resulted from a common radiation event from what was then West Antarctica into South America, then Africa, via late Cretaceous land bridges that survived through the Paleogene.
Taxonomy
The family Psittacidae was introduced (as Psittacea) by French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. The recently revised taxonomy of the family Psittacidae, based on molecular studies, recognizes the sister clade relationship of the Old World Psittacini and New World Arini tribes of subfamily Psittacinae, which have been raised to subfamily ranking and renamed Psittacinae and Arinae. Subfamily Loriinae and the other tribes of subfamily Psittacinae are now placed in superfamily Psittacoidea of all true parrots, which includes family Psittacidae.
The following phylogeny shows how the family Psittacidae relates to the three other families in the order Psittaciformes. The tree is based on the work by Leo Joseph and collaborators published in 2012 but with the choice of families and the number of species in each family taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), now the International Ornithologists' Union.
The family contains 179 species and is divided into 37 genera. Included are four species that have become extinct in historical times: the glaucous macaw, the Carolina parakeet, the Cuban macaw and the Puerto Rican parakeet. The following cladogram is based on a phylogenetic study by Brian Smith and collaborators that was published in 2023. In the analysis the genera Nannopsittaca, Bolborhynchus and Psilopsiagon were found not to be monophyletic. The number of species in each genus is taken from the IOC list.
Subfamily Psittacinae
Genus Psittacus – African grey parrots (two species)
Genus Poicephalus
Genus Bavaripsitta†
Subfamily Arinae
Tribe Arini – macaws and parakeets
Genus Anodorhynchus
Genus Cyanopsitta
Genus Ara
Genus Orthopsittaca
Genus Primolius
Genus Diopsittaca
Genus Rhynchopsitta
Genus Ognorhynchus
Genus Guaruba
Genus Leptosittaca
Genus Psittacara
Genus Aratinga
Genus Eupsittula
Genus Thectocercus
Genus Cyanoliseus
Genus Pyrrhura
Genus Enicognathus
Genus Conuropsis†
Tribe Androglossini – Amazon and related parrots
Genus Pyrilia
Genus Pionopsitta
Genus Graydidascalus
Genus Alipiopsitta
Genus Pionus
Genus Amazona
Genus Triclaria
Clade (proposed tribe Amoropsittacini)
Genus Nannopsittaca
Genus Psilopsiagon
Genus Bolborhynchus
Genus Touit
Clade (proposed tribe Forpini) – parrotlets
Genus Forpus
Clade including Arini
Genus Pionites – caiques (four species)
Genus Deroptyus – red-fan parrot
Clade including Androglossini
Genus Hapalopsittaca
Genus Brotogeris
Genus Myiopsitta
References
Parrots
Taxa described in 1815
Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque