English: Conuropsis carolinensis (Linnaeus, 1758) - the extinct Carolina parakeet (mount, public display, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA).

This was a colorful species that lived throughout much of eastern America (unusual for a member of the parrot family - most are Southern Hemisphere dwellers). It was principally a seed eater and took advantage of those in orchards & farmers’ fields. Because of this, it was perceived as a pest, and was driven to extinction by hunters for pest control, for feathers to be used in the fashion industry, and for "fun". The last verified Carolina parakeet died in February 1918 in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Aves, Psittaciformes, Psittacidae

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Birds are small to large, warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered, bipedal vertebrates capable of powered flight (although some are secondarily flightless). Many scientists characterize birds as dinosaurs, but this is consequence of the physical structure of evolutionary diagrams. Birds aren’t dinosaurs. They’re birds. The logic & rationale that some use to justify statements such as “birds are dinosaurs” is the same logic & rationale that results in saying “vertebrates are echinoderms”. Well, no one says the latter. No one should say the former, either.

However, birds are evolutionarily derived from theropod dinosaurs. Birds first appeared in the Triassic or Jurassic, depending on which avian paleontologist you ask. They inhabit a wide variety of terrestrial and surface marine environments, and exhibit considerable variation in behaviors and diets.