Summary

The Superb Parrot is a mostly green parrot with variation in colours between males and females. This specimen has a pale face and throat, indicating it is a female. Males have a yellow face and a red band around their throats. The date and exact location this specimen was collected is not known.

Today Superb Parrots occur only in Victoria and New South Wales, a range believed to be much smaller than in the nineteenth and even the mid-twentieth century. They nest in red gums and forage in box woodland and their range contraction is probably due to clearing of woodland for agriculture. Populations of Superb Parrots currently appear to be stable at over 10,000 individuals. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) therefore downgraded their status from Vulnerable to Least Concern in 2012. They are currently listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to ensure international trade does not threaten their survival in the wild.

The Superb Parrot is also called Barraband's Parrot after the French artist Jacques Barraband (1767-1809) who illustrated it in 1801. It was formally described and named sometime after this, in 1826, by the French zoologist Anselme Desmarest (1784-1838).

Specimen Details

Taxonomy

Geospatial Information