Carolina Parakeet

Conuropsis carolinensis

The only parrot native to the eastern US. Went extinct because it was too loyal to its flock.

Population: 0 (extinct; last confirmed wild bird 1904/1910, last captive bird "Incas" died at Cincinnati Zoo Feb 21, 1918; formally declared extinct 1939)
Habitat: Old-growth bottomland and swamp forests along rivers, favoring large hollow cypress and sycamore trees for roosting and nesting
Fun fact: The last known Carolina Parakeet, a bird named Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918 — in the same cage where Martha, the last passenger pigeon, had died four years earlier.
Range: Eastern and midwestern United States, from southern New York and Wisconsin south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to eastern Colorado (historically across roughly 28 U.S. states); the only parrot native to North America north of Mexico
Diet: Seeds (notably cocklebur, cypress, hackberry, oak, beech, sycamore, elm, pine), fruits and flower buds; occasional insects; later raided orchard fruit (apples, grapes, figs) as habitat was lost
Size: 0.33 m
Wingspan: 0.56 m
Lifespan: 35 years

More Ghosts of the Past