Vasa parrot

Lore & Background

Some taxonomists formerly placed the species in the genus Mascarinus, but this is now thought to be based on the results of a heavily flawed, later-debunked genetic study. A 2011 genetic study found the Mascarene parrot from Réunion to be nested among the subspecies of the lesser vasa parrot, but a later study found that placement was likely a result of cross-contamination of genetic material during the study, debunking this placement, and supporting them as being two distinct, unrelated genera within different subfamilies.

Reader's Guide

They are notable in the parrot world for their peculiar appearance, which includes extremely truncated bodies with long necks, black to grey feathers and a pink beak. The skin of both female and male vasas turns yellow during the breeding season, and there is often feather loss. In females the feather loss can result in complete baldness. Another feature of the females breeding physiology is when her feathers, which are usually black to grey, turn brown without a moult, caused by the redistribution of melanin. Vasa chicks hatch after only 18–20 days of incubation, which is highly irregular as parrots of the vasa size range tend to take up to 30 days to hatch. The male vasas' cloaca is able to evert into a hemipenis, which becomes erect during mating – a feature unique to the genus. Baby vasas possess pads on their beaks which when stimulated prompt a strong feeding response; these pads disappear after a few weeks, but the feeding reflex remains unusually strong well into adulthood.

Did You Know?

• Vasa parrots infected with the debilitating psittacine beak and feather disease are known to turn white, which, during the 1970s when the first wave of birds were exported into Europe and America, resulted in them being
• The genus Coracopsis was introduced in 1832 by the German ornithologist Johann Georg Wagler, with the type species designated as the lesser vasa parrot by George Robert Gray in 1840.