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parakeet

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.04 sec.
parakeet or parrakeet, common name for a widespread group of small parrots parrot, common name for members of the order Psittaciformes, comprising 315 species of colorful birds, pantropical in distribution, including the parakeet . Parrots have large heads and short necks, strong feet with two toes in front and two in back (facilitating
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, 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 Chordata (kôrdā`tə,–dä`–)
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, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Psittaciformes, family Psittacidae.


parakeet

Enlarge picture
Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), a popular parakeet.
(credit: Bruce Coleman Ltd.)
Any of 115 species in 30 genera (subfamily Psittacinae) of small, slender seed-eating parrots with a long, tapering tail. Parakeets are found worldwide in warm regions. They typically form large flocks. Most species lay four to eight eggs in a tree hole. The most popular caged parakeet is the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), mistakenly called lovebird; about 8 in. (19 cm) long, it may be any colour but usually has cheek spots and close barring on the upper parts.


parakeet, parrakeet
any of numerous small usually brightly coloured long-tailed parrots, such as Psittacula krameri (ring-necked parakeet), of Africa


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A band of braided grasses about her brow held in place a few gaudy feathers from the parakeet, while other bits of grass were fashioned into imitations of arm and leg ornaments of metal.
By this time the sun was driving broad golden spokes through the lower branches of the mango-trees; the parakeets and doves were coming.
 
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