The Mascarene parrot or mascarin is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. The taxonomic relationships of this species have been subject to debate; it has historically been grouped with either the Psittaculini parrots or the vasa parrots, with the latest genetic study favouring the former group.
Mascarene parrot
Plate from Comte de Buffon's encyclopaedia Histoire Naturelle, 1700s
Skull elements extracted from the Paris specimen
Illustration of the Paris specimen's head (after its skull was removed) and feet, 1879
The vasa parrots that form the genus Coracopsis are four species of parrot in the Old World parrot family Psittaculidae that are endemic to Madagascar and other islands in the western Indian Ocean. Some taxonomists formerly placed the species in the genus in Mascarinus, but this is now thought to be based on the results of a heavily flawed, later-debunked genetic study.
Vasa parrot
Image: Coracopsis vasa Madagascar 8
Image: Kleiner Vasa Papagei
Image: Black parrot Seychelles