Yellow-faced Parrot - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix first described the species in 1824 as Psittacus xanthops. Its species name is derived from the Ancient Greek xanthos "yellow", and ops "face". For many years, it was placed within the genus Amazona, although Alípio de Miranda Ribeiro proposed the new genus Salvatoria in 1920 due to differences in the bill and plumage. A 1995 study showed its distinctness genetically, followed up by more data which showed it to be much more closely related to the Short-tailed Parrot (Graydidascalus brachyurus) and to the members of the genus Pionus. Following this discovery, it was briefly placed in the genus Salvatoria again, until this name was found to be pre-occupied by a group of polychaete worms from the superfamily Nereidoidea, thus leading to the transferral of the Yellow-faced Parrot to the new genus Alipiopsitta.