Some taxonomists formerly placed the species in the genus in Mascarinus, but this is now thought to be based on the results of a heavily flawed, later-debunked genetic study.

It also found that the Mascarene parrot line diverged 4.6 to 9 million years ago, prior to the formation of Réunion, indicating this must have happened elsewhere.

[10] They are notable in the parrot world for their peculiar appearance, which includes extremely truncated bodies with long necks, black to grey feathers and a pink beak.

Often aviculturalists have to use a syringe to force food into the crops of young vasas as the intensity of the weaning reflex prevents them from being spoon fed.

Vasa parrots infected with the debilitating psittacine beak and feather disease are known to turn white, which, during the 1970s when the first wave of birds were exported into Europe and America, resulted in them being mistakenly advertised by importers as albinos.