science

Psittaculidae

Psittaculidae is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Psittaculidae rather than just read about it. In short: Psittaculidae is a family of parrots, commonly known as Old World parrots, though this term is a misnomer, as not all its members occur in the Old World, and the Psittacinae also occurs in the Old World. It consists of six subfamilies: Psittrichasinae, Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae, Psittacellinae and Psittaculinae.

Key takeaways

Psittaculidae belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Psittaculidae to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Psittaculidae from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Psittaculidae is a family of parrots, commonly known as Old World parrots, though this term is a misnomer, as not all its members occur in the Old World, and the Psittacinae also occurs in the Old World. It consists of six subfamilies: Psittrichasinae, Agapornithinae, Loriinae, Platycercinae, Psittacellinae and Psittaculinae.

Taxonomy The following cladogram shows how the family Psittaculidae relates to the three other families in the order Psittaciformes. The tree is based on the work by Leo Joseph and collaborators published in 2012 but with the choice of families and the number of species in each family taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), now the International Ornithologists' Union. Joseph and collaborators proposed that the genera Psittrichas and Coracopsis should be placed in their own family, Psittrichasidae. This proposal has not been adopted by taxonomists involved in curating lists of the world birds and instead these two genera are included in an expanded family Psittaculidae.

The family Psittaculidae contains 200 species and is divided into 47 genera. Included are 13 species that have become extinct in historical times. The following cladogram showing the generic relationships is based on a molecular phylogenetic study by Brian Smith and collaborators that was published in 2023. In the analysis two pairs of genera were found not to be monophyletic. These were Psittacula with Tanygnathus and Cyclopsitta with Psittaculirostris. The number of species in each genus is taken from the taxonomy published by the AviList team.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Psittaculidae

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Psittaculidae claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Psittaculidae before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Psittaculidae ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Psittaculidae

In research: Psittaculidae appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Psittaculidae in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Psittaculidae is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Parrot stubs, Parrots, Psittaculidae, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Psittaculidae outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Psittaculidae in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Psittaculidae means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Psittaculidae out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Psittaculidae in simple terms?

Why does Psittaculidae matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Psittaculidae?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Psittaculidae.