I was recently talking over IRC to a friend in southern California about
those marvellous humming-birds they have there, and he mentioned he had a
flock of Amazon parrots living and breeding in his area, obviously escaped
birds.
That got me thinking that, while I have seen the odd Lovebird or Indian
Ringneck, usually looking in pretty poor condition, I have never seen a
breeding, self sustaining population of exotic parrots in Australia. Does
anyone have records of breeding populations of foreign parrots in Australia
that have survived through several generations?
I would think that since any escaped foreign parrot would almost certainly
have been aviary bred, it would not have the survival skills to cope with
life on the outer. Besides which the competition from our native parrots
and other birds and mammals for the dwindling nest hollows would be pretty
tough even if it did meet up with one of its own kind.
On the other hand, some of our own species, such as the Little Corella in SE
Qld, have been quite successful - maybe because many are originally wild
caught birds.
cheers,
Mike Owen
Sunshine Coast
Qld
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