By this a danish greeting regarding the outcome of the
RFI Budgerigars. Best wishes, Peter H. Them
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Pranty <>
To: <>
Date: 21. marts 2000 16:36
Subject: PARROT DATA - RFI Budgerigars
Dear Peter,
I received close to a dozen replies to my RFI for Budgies, thanks to your
help. I would like to post this follow-up message to your Parrot List, and
ask that you also forward it to the Australian list.
Thanks so much.
Bill
Bill Pranty
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks to all those who responded to my RFI about the ability of Budgerigars
to survive sub-freezing temperatures.
>From the emails I received, it seems clear that Budgies are regularly
subjected to night-time temperatures that approach or drop below freezing.
During the day, however, temperatures in the desert are quite hot.
The freezes that hit Florida in the early and mid-1980s brought freezing
temperatures to central Florida ? the Budgie?s range ? for no more than a
few dozen consecutive hours.
I have never thought that the temperatures had any serious, negative affect
on Budgerigars, but needed to verify this with information on temperature
extremes in their native land. Still, the time of central Florida?s freezes
and the initial period of the Budgies dramatic decline ? from tens of
thousands of birds to a few hundred in less than 10 years ? match precisely.
However, it is impossible for me to imagine a massive kill of Budgies ?
literally in peoples? back yards ? that would not have been widely reported
via the media, etc.
I have always suspected that cavity usurpation by two other exotic birds,
the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and House Sparrow (Passer
domesticus) are the main culprits in the Budgie?s decline, combined with a
decreasing number of people who provided nest boxes for the birds. (The vast
majority of the Budgies in Florida nested in nest boxes, although some birds
nested in traffic lights and street lights, and others did nest in tree
cavities, at least initially.)
My guess is that starlings usurped the natural cavities quickly, and that
sparrows usurped the nest boxes? and continue to usurp them up to the
present time.
Some respondents asked the logical question that, given the Budgie?s high
reproductive output, why didn?t populations rebound after the freezes. Since
the last severe freeze to hit central Florida was many years ago, I agree
that this seems to discount the theory that the weather was responsible for
the initial decline of Budgerigars in Florida.
Disease or some other rare event probably can also be ruled out because the
populations have not recovered. And food was never a limiting resource,
since there are literally hundreds ? if not thousands ? of well-stocked bird
feeders in the residential neighborhoods where the Budgies lived.
Again, thanks to all of you who responded to my RFI.
Best regards,
Bill
Bill Pranty
Coordinator, Important Bird Areas Program
http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/florida
Audubon of Florida
410 Ware Boulevard, Suite 702
Tampa, Florida 33619
813-623-6826
813-623-4086 FAX
Photo website: http://www.photoloft.com/album.asp?a=20089&U=25478
The Monk Parakeet mapping project: http://www.monkparakeet.com/florida/
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