Black-fronted Parakeet

The black-fronted parakeet or Tahiti parakeet (Cyanoramphus zealandicus) is an extinct species of parrot endemic to the Pacific island of Tahiti. Its native name was simply 'ā'ā ("parrot") according to Latham (1790) though White (1887) gives "aa-maha".

It was discovered on James Cook's first voyage in 1769, on which the two specimens now in Liverpool and the one in the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring appear to have been collected. Two of them - one of those in Liverpool and the Tring specimen - may also have been taken on Cook's second voyage, in 1773, but the type was painted by Sydney Parkinson who had died in 1771. Another specimen, collected by Amadis in 1842, is in the museum at Perpignan. The last known specimen was collected in 1844 by Lieutenant des Marolles, and is now housed in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris.