The Cockatiel also known as the Quarrion and the Weiro, is the smallest cockatoo

Cockatoo

A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...

 endemic

Endemism in birds

An endemic bird area is a region of the world that contains two or more restricted-range species, while a "secondary area" contains one or more restricted-range species. Both terms were devised by Birdlife International....

 to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. They are prized as a household pet

Pet

A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...

 and companion parrot

Companion parrot

Companion parrot is a general term used for any parrot kept as a pet that interacts abundantly with its human counterpart. Generally, most species of parrot can make good companions....

 throughout the world and are relatively easy to breed. As a caged bird, cockatiels are second in popularity only to the Budgerigar

Budgerigar

The Budgerigar , also known as Common Pet Parakeet or Shell Parakeet informally nicknamed the budgie, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot, and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus...

.

The cockatiel is the only member of the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Nymphicus. It was previously considered a crested parrot or small cockatoo; however, more recent molecular studies have assigned it to the Cockatoo subfamily Calyptorhynchinae (commonly known as Dark Cockatoos).