The lesser vasa parrot or black parrot (''Coracopsis nigra'') is a black coloured parrot

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to most of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It is one of four species of

vasa parrot :''The name vasa parrot is also used for the greater vasa parrot.'' The vasa parrots (''Coracopsis'') are four species of parrot which are endemic to Madagascar and other islands in the western Indian Ocean. Some taxonomists formerly placed the ...

s, the others being the

greater vasa parrot The greater vasa parrot (''Coracopsis vasa'') is one of two species of vasa parrot, the other being the lesser vasa parrot ''C. nigra''. The greater vasa parrot can be found throughout Madagascar and the Comoros. Taxonomy The bird was describ ...

''C. vasa'', the

Seychelles black parrot The Seychelles black parrot, Praslin parrot or kato nwar (''Coracopsis barklyi'') is a sombre-coloured, medium-sized parrot endemic to the Seychelles. Historically, it has been treated as a subspecies of the lesser vasa parrot, although it shows ...

(''C. barklyi''), and the Comoros black parrot (''C. sibilans''). The latter two were formerly considered conspecific with the lesser vasa parrot. Lesser vasa parrots inhabit the

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

swamps and

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

forests of

. They eat seeds, blossoms and

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

- especially

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...

and mangos. They build their

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

s in

tree hollow A tree hollow or tree hole is a semi-enclosed cavity which has naturally formed in the trunk or branch of a tree. They are found mainly in old trees, whether living or not. Hollows form in many species of trees, and are a prominent feature of nat ...

s and go through

courtship Courtship is the period wherein some couples get to know each other prior to a possible marriage. Courtship traditionally may begin after a betrothal and may conclude with the celebration of marriage. A courtship may be an informal and private m ...

in February. During this time, the

female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females ...

may shed the

feathers Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...

on her head giving it a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

ish tone. The

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for foo ...

may also turn

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

during this time.

Taxonomy

In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included a picture and a description of the lesser vasa parrot in his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "Black Parrot from Madagascar". His drawing was made from a live bird owned by the Duke of Richmond. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

updated his '' Systema Naturae'' for the tenth edition, he placed the lesser vasa parrot with all the other parrots in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Psittacus ''Psittacus'' is a genus of African grey parrots in the subfamily Psittacinae. It contains the two species: the grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus'') and the Timneh parrot (''Psittacus timneh''). For many years, the grey parrot and Timneh p ...

''. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name ''Psittacus niger'' and cited Edwards's work. The specific epithet ''niger'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

meaning "black". The lesser vasa parrot is now placed in the

'' Coracopsis'' that was introduced in 1832 by the German ornithologist

Johann Georg Wagler Johann Georg Wagler (28 March 1800 – 23 August 1832) was a German herpetologist and ornithologist. Wagler was assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, and gave lectures in zoology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich after it was moved ...

. There are two subspecies: **''Coracopsis nigra libs'', Bangs 1927 **''Coracopsis nigra nigra'', (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758) The

(''C. barklyi'') and Comoros black parrot (''C. sibilans'') were formerly considered subspecies, but were later split as distinct species. A 2011 genetic study found the

Mascarene parrot The Mascarene parrot or mascarin (''Mascarinus mascarinus'') is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. The taxonomic relationships of this species have been subject to ...

from Réunion to be nested among the subspecies of the lesser vasa parrot from Madagascar and nearby islands, and therefore not related to the ''Psittacula'' parrots. It also found that the Mascarene parrot line diverged 4.6 to 9 million years ago, prior to the formation of Réunion, indicating this must have happened elsewhere. The

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

accompanying the study is shown below: Another group of scientists later acknowledged the finding, but pointed out that the sample might have been damaged, and that further testing was needed before the issue could be fully resolved. They also noted that if ''Mascarinus'' was confirmed to be embedded within the genus ''Coracopsis'', the latter would become a junior synonym, since the former name is older. Hume has expressed surprise by these findings, due to the anatomical similarities between the Mascarene parrot and other parrots from the islands that are believed to be psittaculines. However, a later study found that the placement of ''Mascarinus'' within ''Coracopsis'' was likely a result of cross-contamination of genetic material from the lesser vasa parrot during the study, debunking this placement, and supporting them as being two distinct, unrelated genera within different subfamilies.

References

{{Taxonbar , from=Q1746715

lesser vasa parrot The lesser vasa parrot or black parrot (''Coracopsis nigra'') is a black coloured parrot endemic to most of Madagascar. It is one of four species of vasa parrots, the others being the greater vasa parrot ''C. vasa'', the Seychelles black parrot ...

Birds of Madagascar