 Very little is known about the Mascarene parrot in life . Since several specimens were kept alive in captivity , it was probably not a specialised feeder . That the Vienna specimen was partially white may have been the result of food deficiency during a long period in captivity ; the clipped primary wing feathers indicate it was caged . Little was known about parrot @-@ diet in the 1700s , and the Vienna specimen may not have received enough of the amino acid tyrosine through its food , which it would have needed for melanin synthesis . In other parrots , this would have resulted in orange instead of white colour in the affected feathers , due to the presence of the pigment psittacin , but Coracopsis parrots and the Mascarene parrot are the only parrots that lack this pigment . The specimen has also been described as " partially albinistic " at times , though true albinism ( lack of the enzyme tyrosinase ) can by definition never only be partial . 
