[1][2] Among them are some of the most familiar and iconic parrots, including the blue and gold macaw, sun conure, and yellow-headed amazon.

The chief reasons for decline in parrot populations are habitat loss through deforestation by clear-cutting, burning, and flooding by construction of dams, capture for the pet trade, and introduction of non-native predators.

The New World parrots are monophyletic, and have been geographically isolated for at least 30–55 million years by molecular dating methods.

Though fairly few fossils of modern parrots are known, most of these are from tribe Arini of macaws and parakeets; the oldest are from 16 million years ago.

[5][6][7][8][9][10] Schodde, et al.[11] recognize a division of the remaining genera into several distinct clades, indicating possible previously undefined tribes: