 If Hahn 's account is disregarded , the Mascarene parrot probably became extinct prior to 1800 . The last account of wild specimens on Réunion is from the 1770s . It is thought that the Mascarene parrot went extinct in the wild while captive specimens still survived in Europe , since specimens are known to have lived there after the last mention of wild birds . In the 1790s , French author , explorer , and naturalist François Levaillant stated that the bird was rare and that he had seen three specimens in France . 
