Advancing Genetic Methods in the Study of Parrot Biology and Conservation

Parrots (Psittaciformes) are a well-studied, diverse group of birds distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. Today, one-third their species face extinction, due to anthropogenic threats. Emerging tools genetics have made major contributions understanding basic applied aspects parrot biology the wild captivity. In this review, we show how genetic methods transformed study parrots by summarising important milestones advances implementations research on parrots. We describe helped further knowledge specific fields with wide array examples from literature that address conservation significance (1) deeper phylogeny historical biogeography; (2) species- genus-level systematics taxonomy; (3) genomics; (4) behavioural ecology; (5) molecular ecology landscape genetics; (6) museomics DNA. Finally, highlight gaps inform future genomic Our review shows application techniques has far-reaching implications for addressing aims highly threatened charismatic clade birds.