Re: Painted Finch north of Jerilderie, NSW Riverina,

[Andrew Taylor <>]

On Tue, Sep 02, 2008 at 04:52:39PM +1000, John Harris wrote:
> From my 20 years of avicultural experience, any escapee would only
> survive a couple of days in the 'wild', so I have to concur with
> Grant Brosie's earlier statement.

Although the chances of an individual escapee are no doubt very poor,
John Long's "Introduced Birds of the World" details many cases of birds
thought to be aviary escapees persisting for at least several years in the
wild and in some cases establishing long-term populations.  For example,
Birds of Sydney list these birds (and others) as escapees which survived
for some time and in some cases bred: Cuban Grassquit, Nutmeg Manakin,
White-headed Manakin, Black-headed Manakin, Java Sparrow, Red Bishop,
White-winged Wydah, Crimson Finch and Star Finch

Andrew