Admirylity Islands Parrot (Psittrichas sp.)

This species, if it indeed was one, is known exclusively from one account dating to about the middle of the 19th century.: 

“I saw on the main island a scarlet and black Parrot or Cockatoo of some kind, which flew out of some high trees on the seashore, screaming loudly, like a Cockatoo. The bird was wary, and I could not get a shot at it. It reminded me at the time of the rare Dasyptilus pequetti [Pesquet’s Parrot (Psittrichas fulgidus (Lesson))] of New Guinea; it was of about that size.” [1][2]

This account may refer to a species endemic to the Admirality Islands, or it may refer to the actual Pesquet’s Parrot (see depiction below), which inhabites New Guinea itself and may once have had a wider distribution or may have traveld over sea from the larger island to the smaller offshore island groups.

If it indeed refers to a endemic form, this one is now extinct, since no such bird is known to occur on the Admirality Islands today.

*********************

References:

[1] H. N. Moseley: Notes by a naturalist on the “Challenger”, being an account of various observations made during the voyage of H.M.S. “Challenger” around the world, in the years 1872-1876, under the commands of Capt. Sir G. S. Nares and Capt. F. T. Thomson. London, Macmillan and Co. 1879
[2] Julian P. Hume: Extinct Birds: 2nd edition 2017

*********************

*********************

edited: 11.02.2020