While living in the suburb of Hillarys for about 5 years 3 years ago, I
regularily saw Indian Ringnecks and Princess Parrots (only ever single
birds) at the local rec. reserve. These birds were seen 6-12 months apart
and appeared at regular intervals that it was obvious someone had either
very bad management of aviary security and lacked common sense not to leave
doors open .. or they were releasing them deliberately, probably to ge rid
of stock. Either way on many occasion the "free" birds were set upon and
caught by the local pair of Brown Goshawks, and in other cases were harrased
by magies/red wattlebirds. I feel that the ringnecks and princess parrots
would not have lasted long and I never saw more than one at time suggesting
they had not been congregating in groups, and only ever saw them for a
couple of days before they either moved on or disappeared.
On another note, there have been a number of reports over the years of the
blue mutation of Barnadius zonarius sp. appearing more frequently in the
Darling Scarp/Swan Valley around Chittering and Gidgegannup. The b/f also
spotted a Sun Conure feeding with a flock of those other introduced
racket-makers, Rainbow Lorikeets in West Leederville two years ago.
It would be interesting to know of the success rates of aviary escapes in
the environment as many captive bird species must be released/escape each
year, however only certain species seem to prevail.
- CS
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