[5] South Africa-based ornithologist Phillip Clancey proposed the Cape and brown-necked parrots were separate species in 1997 based on the shape and size of the bill, head coloration and preferred habitat.

Mike Perrin observed that species status would facilitate protection of the endangered Cape parrot.

[3] Genetic analysis of the three taxa published in 2015 supported the distinctness of brown-necked and cape parrots, showing that ancestors of the two had diverged between 2.13 and 2.67 million years ago—in the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene epoch.

[7] The largest member of its genus, the brown-necked parrot has a relatively large head and bill, and stocky build.

[9] Subspecies fuscicollis is found in west Africa from Gambia and southern Senegal to Ghana and Togo.