Psittaciformes - Eclectus

Eclectus

Oceanic eclectus parrot, Eclectus infectus, known from subfossil bones found on Tonga, Vanuatu, and possibly Fiji, may have survived until the 18th century: a bird which seems to be a male Eclectus parrot was drawn in a report on the Tongan island of Vavaʻu by the Malaspina expedition. Also a 19th-century Tongan name ʻāʻā ("parrot") for "a beautiful bird found only at ʻEua" is attested (see hereunder "kaka"). This seems to refer either E. infectus which in Tonga is only known from Vavaʻu and ʻEua, or the extirpated population of the collared lory which also occurred there. It is possible but unlikely that the species survived on ʻEua until the 19th century.