The shift from a diurnal to nocturnal lifestyle in vertebrates is generally associated with either enhanced visual sensitivity or a decreased reliance on vision. Within birds, most studies have focused on differences in the visual system across all birds with respect to nocturnality-diurnality. The critically endangered Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus), a parrot endemic to New Zealand, is an examp...

Recently in this journal, Gregory & Dickinson (2012) replaced Prosopeia Bonaparte,1854, the widely used and longaccustomed generic name for the Fijian shining parrots, with Pyrrhulopsis Reichenbach, 1850. This action was then followed in the influential Howard & Moore global checklist of birds (Dickinson & Remsen 2013: 377) and the websites Avibase (2013) and TiF Checklist (2013). Gregory and D...

The last 20 years have seen a resurgence in systematic studies of parrots (Aves: Psittaciformes). Principally but not solely molecular in nature, this body of work has addressed the circumscription of higher level groupings within the Psittaciformes and relationships among them. Stability has now emerged on many formerly contentious matters at these levels. Accordingly, we consider it appropria...

Exclusion allows the detection of hidden food when confronted with the choice between an empty and a potentially baited food location. However, exclusion may be based on avoidance of the empty location without drawing inferences about the presence of the food in the baited location. So far, such inferences have been demonstrated in the great apes only: after seeing an experimenter eating one of...

Urbanisation typically results in a reduction of hollow-bearing trees and an increase in the density of particularly species, potentially resulting in an increased level of competition as cavity-nesting species compete for a limited resource. To improve understanding of hollow usage between urban cavity-nesting species in Australia, particularly parrots, we investigated how the hollow-using ass...

Indonesia is one of mega biodiversity countries and inhabited by 300.000 animal species including 1,531 bird species which constitutes 15 % of all bird in the world (Mittermeier et al. 1997, Andrew 1992). IUCN recorded 104 bird species to be endangered. In the world, about 350 parrot species are distributed primarily in hotspots of biodiversity such as Brazil, tropical Africa and Indonesia. Thi...

To study footedness in parrots, an international survey of parrot owners was conducted. Responses were obtained from 524 individuals, including 70 owners of African Grey parrots (all animals > or = 10 months old). All respondents were given a 10-item questionnaire and a standard method for testing foot preference in their pets, and they were asked to count the number of separate words in their ...

In the current study, we examined for the first time, the potential for adult neurogenesis throughout the brain of the Congo African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) and Timneh grey parrot (Psittacus timneh) using immunohistochemistry for the endogenous markers proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), which labels proliferating cells, and doublecortin (DCX), which stains immature and migrati...

Parrots and songbirds learn their vocalizations from a conspecific tutor, much like human infants acquire spoken language. Parrots can learn human words and it has been suggested that they can use them to communicate with humans. The caudomedial pallium in the parrot brain is homologous with that of songbirds, and analogous to the human auditory association cortex, involved in speech processing...