Cape parrot
species of bird
The Cape parrot (Poicephalus robustus) or Levaillant's parrot is a large, temperate forest dwelling parrot of the genus Poicephalus endemic to South Africa. It was formerly grouped as a subspecies along with the savanna-dwelling brown-necked parrot (Poicephalus fuscicollis) and grey-headed parrot (P. f. suahelicus), but is now considered a distinct species.
Taxonomy
The Cape parrot was described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham under the English name, the "robust parrot". When in 1788 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, he included the Cape parrot with a short description, coined the binomial name Psittacus robustus and cited Latham's work. The type locality is South Africa. The Cape parrot is now placed with nine other species in the genus Poicephalus that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1837. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek phaios "grey" and -kephalos "headed". The specific epithet rubustus is Latin for "strong" or "robust". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of bird. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q569157. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1781, 1788 and 1837.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cape 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.