Carolina Parakeet

The Carolina Parakeet is a cryptid classified as a Lazarus Taxon (an animal believed to be extinct but then found alive again). The Carolina Parakeet was first described in 1891 and goes by the scientific name Conuropsis carolinensis. It’s a small bird with green plumage that has sections of yellow and orange. It is the only bird in the parakeet family native to North America and could be found in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Due to their tendency to eat fruit, many were killed en mass by farmers. This along with them being sold as pets, or used as decorations for women’s hats, led to their extinction. The last known wild specimen was seen in 1904 and the last in captivity died in 1918. Despite extinction, they continued to be sighted for the next twenty years. Now many forms of parakeets can be found in these areas, therefore opening the possibility of mistaken identity.

Citations:

Newton, Michael. Florida’s Unexpected Wildlife: Exotic Species, Living Fossils, and Mythical Beasts in the Sunshine State. United States, University Press of Florida, 2007.