parrot or parakeet?

[rebeccaturpeinen]

This may be a silly question but here goes:

What is the difference between a parrot and a parakeet? I have a Crimson Rosella and I have seem them mentioned as parrots and as parakeets. On the danish sites he is usually called a parakeet but on wikipedia it is a parrot..... I am new to the world of birds so I am still learning

From the information I can find parakeet just means small parrot... a Crimson Rosella is about 30-35 cm, is this counted as small?

[zazanomore]

All parakeets are parrots, but not all parrots are parakeets

[rebeccaturpeinen]

hehe thats what I found out online... very confusing subject

[pchela]

A parakeet is defined by it's long tail. I think parakeet actually means long, flat tail. So, you have a parakeet. It is still in the parrot family. Anyway, if it's not a Macaw or a Conure (not sure why conures aren't considered parakeets) then it's probably a parakeet. For example, Indian Ringnecks, Quakers and Alexandrines are all considered parakeets along with the Budgerigar. I'm pretty sure a Rosella is considered a Grass Parakeet as well, to make things more confusing!

[Michael]

Actually conures are considered parakeets

[pchela]

They are? I guess I've only ever heard them referred to as conures. Hmmm. Learn something new every day!

What about Macaws? Why aren't they considered large parakeets?

[Michael]

Because parakeet implies small, long tailed parrot. Macaws aren't small. "Conure" is a bs term that neither applies to taxonomy nor to categorization. It doesn't make any sense and is only used by breeders, pet stores, and stuff. It just confuses people. I think they don't want to use the word parakeet because people think of the $10 budgie as parakeet.

On the IUCN red list, they categorize what you would call a Sun Conure as a Sun Parakeet:

http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist ... s/142601/0

I don't like to use the term conure as it is ambiguous. So in fact they are the green-cheeked parakeet, sun parakeet, and nanday parakeet. Until I can find a more unified/respected source, I figure I'll go by the iucn. So yeah, Monk Parakeet, Cape Parrot, and Sun Parakeet.

[MandyG]

So I have a Yellow Crowned Amazon and a Gold Capped parakeet?

I think I'll stick with Gold Capped Conure, it just sounds better.

[Michael]

This is how we end up with things like Blue and Gold Macaw, Quaker Parrot, Uncape, American Parakeet, and the African Red, cause someone thought it sounded nicer...

[pchela]

I know that parakeets are thought of as smaller birds but since parakeet means long tail and nothing to do with size, why not call Macaws parakeets? Doesn't seem fair... just because they're bigger. What about a Hahn's Macaw?

Isn't Conure a genus? It means long tapered tail so is it not a classification for different parakeets? In that case I'd think that Macaws would actually fit into the conure category but I think I read somewhere that Aritinga means little macaw.

I don't know why it has to be so confusing. Every bird I've come across has at least 2 and usually more names.