The spread of feral parrots in the USA

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Yes, all this fully described for Canberra with monthly and long term abundance and breeding graphs in my 130 page book Canberra Birds: A Report on the first 21 years of the Garden Bird Survey  (though things have changed a little since then). For what it is worth we do have escaped parrots occasionally but none of them ever establish populations. Corellas and Rainbow Lorikeet may have a mix of origins).

 

Philip

 

From: Birding-Aus [ On Behalf Of calyptorhynchus
Sent: Monday, 20 May, 2019 6:57 AM
To: <>
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] The spread of feral parrots in the USA

 

In the neighbourhood of our house in Hughes, ACT, we can see the following parrot spp on a daily basis:

 

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Eastern Rosella

Crimson Rosella

Red-rumped Parrot

Gang-gang

Rainbow Lorikeet

Galah

 

Depending on the time of year we can also see:

 

King Parrots

 

We have also seen the following:

 

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Superb Parrot

Little Corella

Long-billed Corella

Musk Lorikeet

Little Lorikeet

Swift Parrot

 

15 species, I doubt whether there is anywhere else on earth you can see as many parrot spp in one suburban, or non-urban, spot.*

 

Of these only the Long-billed Corella is definitely introduced to the Canberra area (Little Corella may be, or a natural introduction from drought-refugee flocks).

 

* I'm sure people from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane &c will provide their lists and contest this.

 

On Mon, 20 May 2019 at 04:59, Donald G. Kimball <> wrote:

Living here in  California I think it helpful to state that the USA is not exactly swarming with parrots.  Here in Northern California several small flocks of Red-masked Parakeets famous for the film the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill are present.  Otherwise there are none.  Southern California urban areas certainly have parrot populations but I hope it's helpful to mention that the US is nothing like Australia with its rich populations of parrots everywhere.  I just returned from leading a tour for 9 people to see Australia's parrots and once again I came away enriched and overjoyed at the beauty of these birds and their prolific status in your beautiful country. - Don K

 

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 1:32 PM Mike Owen <> wrote:

Most of the wild parrots in the USA originated from wild caught birds
that were imported in large numbers until the passing of legislation -
the Wild Bird Conservation Act (I think that is the correct name of the
act) - in 1992 to stop the import of CITIES listed  birds.   The main
importation quarantine stations were in Florida and California and
occasionally escapes occurred - dropped crates breaking open etc.  quite
apart form many purchasers finding the taming of a wild caught Macaw,
Amazon or Conure was too hard, and after running out of bandages would
eventually open the cage door.  Being wild caught those birds had to
skills to survive.

Mike Owen

On 16-May-19 7:03 PM, Laurie Knight wrote:
> https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190514162206.htm
>
>   Escaped pet parrots are now naturalized in 23 US states, study finds
>

--

John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net

‘There is kinship between people and all animals. Such is the Law.’ Kimberley lawmen (from Yorro Yorro)

 

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