It can be difficult at times though to judge
whether a wild bird is infact an aviary escapee and vice versa. A
combination of factors may need to be considered - obviously location, proximity
to suburban areas, behaviour etc.
Last year we had a Red-capped Parrot hanging around
our area (in western Sydney) for quite some time. It behaved very much like some
of the wild Red-cap's I often encountered in WA (though I eventually had
great views of them in WA). This escapee! bird was very hard to approach and
every time I got within a few metres when it did perch in a tree, it would
then take off miles away and it certainly flew like a wild bird. The only time I
had good views of this escapee was when it was feeding in our backyard and I was
looking at it through the window. We also had at the time a
Pale-headed Rosella hanging about the local Eastern Rosella population and it
too behaved like a wild bird.
One of the most common escapees I frequently
encounter are Cockatiels. One or two I saw in the Barrington Tops area and
because of the time of drought and being far away from suburbia, I thought this
would be a wild bird (only about 200km east of its normal range). One bird a
Windsor Downs (western Sydney) during drought was alos a
?
A record of 3 Imm. Superb Parrots at McGraths Hills
(western Sydney) could have been wild birds as well!
But many escapee's do indeed act fairly tame and
eventually perish.
Edwin
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