Night parrot
Pezoporus occidentalis (Gould, 1861)
CRCritically Endangeredparrots
The night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) is a species in the family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes. Recorded adults weigh about 130 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Critically Endangered.
Quick facts about the night parrot
- Weight
- 130 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Granivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 4 – 4.5src for Young per litter or clutch
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Critically Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the night parrot live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The night parrot is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the night parrot?
The night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) is a small parrot endemic to the continent of Australia. It has also been known as porcupine parrot, nocturnal ground parakeet, midnight cockatoo, solitaire, spinifex parrot and night parakeet. It is one of the most elusive and mysterious birds in the world, with no confirmed sightings of the bird between 1912 and 1979, leading to speculation that it was extinct. Sightings since 1979 have been extremely rare and the bird's population size is unknown, though based on the paucity of records it is thought to number between 50 and 249 mature individuals, and it is classified by the IUCN as a critically endangered species.
A few sightings or recordings of its presence, with varying degrees of certainty, have occurred in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, south-western Queensland, the Lake Eyre basin in South Australia and the Northern Territory. However, some of the evidence produced by wildlife photographer John Young has been called into question, and in March 2019 the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) retracted some of the records created by Young and published by the AWC.
From the Wikipedia article “Night parrot” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night_parrot&oldid=1382107268), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the night parrot endangered?
The night parrot is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Critically Endangered species.
How is the night parrot classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPsittaciformes
- familyPsittaculidae
- genusPezoporus
- SpeciesPezoporus occidentalis (Gould, 1861)
Synonyms Geopsittacus occidentalis, Geopsittacus occidentalis occidentalis, Geopsittacus occidentalis whiteae
Other names and names in other languages (44)
- ببغاء ليليArabic
- Начны папугайBelarusian
- Нощен папагалBulgarian
- periquito nocturnCatalan
- kakari nočníCzech
- papoušek nočníCzech
- Parot nosWelsh
- NatparakitDanish
- NachtsittichGerman
- HöhlensittichGerman
- nokta papagoEsperanto
- Loro NocturnoSpanish
- Perico nocturnoSpanish
- ööpapagoiEstonian
- طوطی شبPersian
- yökaijaFinnish
- Perruche nocturneFrench
- Pézopore nocturneFrench
- noćna papigaCroatian
- éjjeli papagájHungarian
- éjjeli földipapagájHungarian
- Bayan malamIndonesian
- Pappagallo notturnoItalian
- ヒメフクロウインコJapanese
- naktinė papūgaLithuanian
- Йыд попугайWestern Mari
- NattpapegøyeNorwegian Bokmål
- NachtpapegaaiDutch
- hulepapegøyeNorwegian
- papużka żółtobrzuchaPolish
- رات طوطاWestern Panjabi
- periquito-noturnoPortuguese
- periquito-de-barriga-laranjaPortuguese
- periquito-nocturnoPortuguese
- periquito-terrestre-nocturnoPortuguese
- Ночной попугайRussian
- Ночной попугайчикRussian
- zemnár nočnýSlovak
- Noćni papagajSerbian
- nattpapegojaSwedish
- Gece PapağanıTurkish
- папужка жовточеревийUkrainian
- 夜鸚鵡Chinese
- 夜鹦鹉Chinese
Relatives of the night parrot
Other species in the same genus Pezoporus.
Ground parrot
Pezoporus wallicus
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the night parrot?
An adult night parrot weighs 130 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the night parrot live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the night parrot for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the night parrot endangered?
The night parrot is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
What kind of animal is the night parrot?
The night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) belongs to the family Psittaculidae in the order Psittaciformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/night-parrot
“Night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/night-parrot.
@misc{night_parrot_2026,
title = {Night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/night-parrot},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}