The horned parakeet was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3] Gmelin based his description on the "horned parrot" that had been described and illustrated in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds.

Latham's specimen had been obtained from New Caledonia during Captain James Cook's first voyage to the south Pacific Ocean.

It preferentially selects rainforest and laurel forest habitat, but will accept scrublands or savannah.

The main threats to the horned parakeet are the black rat, the wildcat, the introduced Rusa deer, logging, La Nina (wet) years, and Psittacine beak and feather disease, a severe virus which is known to affect ~42 species of parrots.

[11] The horned parakeet is listed by the IUCN as Vulnerable, due to their restricted range and small, declining population size.