Vertebrate Zoology

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parakeet

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

parakeet or parrakeet, common name for a widespread group of small parrots , native to the Indo-Malayan region and popular as cage birds. Parakeets have long, pointed tails, unlike the chunky lovebirds with which they are sometimes confused. The budgerigar, also called the shell, zebra, or grass, parakeet ( Melopsittacus undulatus ), is the best known of the true parakeets. The wild budgerigar of Australia is usually green or blue with black-and-yellow markings; as a cage bird, however, it has been bred in white and yellow. The hanging parakeet sleeps upside down like a bat.

The extinct Carolina parakeet was the only parrot native to the United States. It was 12 in. (30 cm) long with a yellow-green body and orange-red head. It was sought as a cage bird and for its plumage, and was killed as a destroyer of fruit and grain crops. The budgerigar and other released or escaped nonnative parrots may be found in the United States, mainly in California, Texas, and Florida, but the monk parakeet ( Myiopsitta monachus ), a green and yellow bird with a pale gray forehead and breast and dark blue wing feathers, has well-established colonies in several northern and southern states.

Parakeets are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Psittaciformes, family Psittacidae.

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parakeet

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Copyright

parakeet XVI. Three types are repr.: (i) parroket, -quet, perroquet XVI, (ii) paraquito, -quetto XVI, (iii) par(r)akeet XVII, the last being anglicized forms of the former, which are — (O)F. paroquet (mod. perroquet parrot); perh. ult. based on dims. of the name ‘Peter’ (F. Pierrot, Sp. Perico).

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T. F. HOAD. "parakeet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "parakeet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-parakeet.html

T. F. HOAD. "parakeet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-parakeet.html

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parakeet

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

par·a·keet / ˈparəˌkēt/ • n. a small parrot (Psittacula, Cyanoramphus, and other genera) with predominantly green plumage and a long tail.

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parakeet

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

parakeet See parrot

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parakeet

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes | 2007 | Copyright

parakeet •accrete, beat, beet, bittersweet, bleat, cheat, cleat, clubfeet, compete, compleat, complete, conceit, Crete, deceit, delete, deplete, discreet, discrete, eat, effete, élite, entreat, escheat, estreat, excrete, feat, feet, fleet, gîte, greet, heat, leat, leet, Magritte, maltreat, marguerite, meat, meet, mesquite, mete, mistreat, neat, outcompete, peat, Pete, petite, pleat, receipt, replete, seat, secrete, sheet, skeet, sleet, splay-feet, street, suite, sweet, teat, treat, tweet, wheat •backbeat • heartbeat • deadbeat •breakbeat • offbeat • browbeat •downbeat • drumbeat • upbeat •sugar beet • Blackfeet • flatfeet •forefeet • exegete • polychaete •lorikeet • parakeet •athlete, biathlete, decathlete, heptathlete, pentathlete, triathlete •kick-pleat • paraclete • obsolete •gamete • crabmeat • sweetmeat •mincemeat • forcemeat • backstreet •concrete • window seat

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Nest adoption by Monk Parakeets. Magazine article from: Wilson Bulletin; 6/1/1996
	Use of active Monk Parakeet nests by Common Pigeons and response by the... Magazine article from: The Wilson Journal of Ornithology; 12/1/2009
	Natural history of the Monk Parakeet in Hyde Park, Chicago. Magazine article from: Wilson Bulletin; 9/1/1995