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About the Carolina Parakeet:
You'd think a bird as inoffensive and pleasant to look at as a parrot would escape extinction, but that certainly wasn't the case with the Carolina Parrot, the last zoo-dwelling specimen of which expired way back in 1918. Despite its name, the Carolina parrot wasn't restricted to North or South Carolina, but made its home in woodlands across the eastern seaboard of the United States, as well as parts of the interior. It was distinguished by its fairly large flocks of hundreds of individuals and (as is the case with many parrots) monogamous behavior, the males and females pairing off for a lifetime.
Like its distant relatives, the Passenger Pigeon and the Dodo, the Carolina Parakeet was doomed by the European settlers of North America, who cleared much of the woodlands of the east coast and then actively hunted these birds to keep them from raiding their imported crops. It also didn't help that 1) the feathers of the Carolina Parakeet were prized for use in women's hats, 2) many of these birds were captured and sold as pets, and 3) flocks of Carolina Parakeets wouldn't disperse when shot at, but instead hovered around dead or dying individuals, making them easy targets for further decimation.
