Regent parrot
species of bird
The regent parrot or rock pebbler (Polytelis anthopeplus) is a bird found in southern Australia. It has predominantly yellow plumage with a green tail. The bird is found primarily in eucalyptus groves and other wooded areas of subtropical southwestern Australia, as well as in a smaller area of subtropical and temperate southeastern Australia. Seeds make up the bulk of its diet.
Taxonomy
A species of Psittaculidae, allied to the tribe Polytelini, a sister taxon to Polytelis swainsonii, the superb parrot, and P. alexandrae, the princess parrot. The epithet anthopeplus is derived from ancient Greek, a compound of anthos, flower, and peplos, robe. A 2017 molecular study placed the regent parrot as an early offshoot to the genus Aprosmictus and not as closely related to the other two species.
There are two populations, morphologically similar though isolated, within the species distribution range of Southern Australia.
These are described as subspecies:
Polytelis anthopeplus anthopeplus, Southwest Australia
Polytelis anthopeplus monarchoides Schodde, 1993. Southeast Australia
The regent parrot was first depicted by English author and artist Edward Lear in 1831.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Regent parrot” as species of bird. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q550091. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2017, 1993 and 1831.
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This entry incorporates text from “Regent parrot” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.