Bourke’s Parrot

Neopsephotus bourkii

John Gould was the first to describe the species, in 1841.

Neopsephotus combines the Greek neos (new or different) with psephotus, a generic name coined by Gould; bourkii is the specific name first given to the species by Sir Thomas Mitchell in honour of Major-General Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales between 1831 and 1837.

William T. Cooper, Bourke’s Parrot (Neophema bourkii) 1970 (adult male)

Author’s note: Bourke’s Parrot is the most arid-adapted member of the grass parrots. While the others are largely bright green, Bourke’s Parrot wears the softer colours of the inland, blending seamlessly with the limbs of dead trees, on which it likes to perch.

John and Elizabeth Gould, Euphema bourkii
(Bourke’s Grass-Parrakeet) 1848

Author’s note: This illustration is the first published of the species.