Which extinct bird was the only parrot native to the continental United States?

Which extinct bird was the only parrot native to the continental United States? The answer is the Carolina parakeet. This brightly coloured parrot lived across parts of the eastern, central, and midwestern United States.

The species, Conuropsis carolinensis, was distinctive for its green body, yellow head, and orange-red face. It occupied forests, river bottoms, wooded wetlands, and agricultural areas, often travelling in noisy flocks.

Population declines were driven by habitat loss, hunting, persecution as a crop pest, and capture for the cage-bird trade. Its habit of gathering in large groups also made it especially vulnerable to mass killing.

The last known wild individuals disappeared by the early twentieth century. The final captive Carolina parakeet died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918, and the species is now extinct. The passenger pigeon, moa, and dodo were also extinct birds, but none was a native continental U.S. parrot.