Thursday, October 15, 2009

Norfolk Island National Park

Norfolk Island National Park is a protected area of 6.50 km². It comprises two sections, the Mt Pitt section on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific Ocean with an area of 4.60 km² and the neighbouring 1.90 km² Phillip Island, as well as the much smaller Nepean Island. The Norfolk Island group is an Australian territory and the park is managed by Parks Australia. It is the only place in the world where the Norfolk Island Parakeet and the White-chested White-eye occur

The Norfolk Parakeet (Cyanoramphus cookii), also called Tasman Parakeet,Norfolk Island Green Parrot or Norfolk Island Red-crowned Parakeet, is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family. It is endemic to Norfolk Island (located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia in the Tasman Sea). The species was once considered a subspecies of the Red-crowned Parakeet of New Zealand.

The name Tasman Parakeet is used by Christidis and Boles on the argument that this species and the Lord Howe Red-crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae subflavescens) are probably a single species for which they use biogeographical arguments. Tasman is used for other species with the same distribution and they propose that name for that reason. However, the latter subspecies was not included in the genus wide phylogenetic reconstruction using DNA sequences, and the lumping of the species should be considered tentative.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and plantations. It is threatened by habitat loss.

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