Budgies and Carolina parakeets
 
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Recently I wrote a column on the parakeets that once lived in great numbers in the eastern and southern parts of the United States and even into Colorado, northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. According to my information they are now extinct. The current issue of Bluebird (formerly Sialia) journal of the North American Bluebird Society arrived in my mailbox last week with a cover picture of a “budgie” at the entrance of a nest box and a feature story inside the magazine. It notes that budgerigars are often called budgies or known as parakeets—familiar as caged pets. It states the parakeets are found wild in Florida, but perhaps not for much longer. According to this information taken by permission from an article in the June-July 2001 issue of North American Birds written by Florida ornithologist Bill Pranty the bird still lives wild in supplied houses in Florida. It states the bird is an introduced species native to the interior portions of Australia. The first “budgies” the story says appeared in the central Gulf region of Florida in the 1950s. About 30 years later the population crashed and is not expected to recover due to competition from house sparrows and starlings. Reduced size of the nest box entrance helps keep starlings from getting in, but not sparrows. This is the same problem experienced in providing bluebird nest boxes here in Wisconsin. The Florida birds apparently live in the yards of the folks who supply water in bird baths, commercial bird seed in feeders and nest boxes for nesting. Part of the decline of the species is believed due to the fact that many people who provided nest boxes no longer live in the area and there has been a major reduction in nesting places. According to the story the first “wild” budgies appeared in the 1950s in the Gulf region of Florida. My story information was that the “Carolina parakeet” (I know no reason for calling them “Carolina”) numbers were down to only a few in swamp forests of Florida in the 1890s, more than 50 years before the budgerigars from Australia appeared “wild” in Florida. I wonder whether the much earlier abundant (1800) Carolina parakeet was introduced from the Caroline Islands? Sailors are known to have kept pet birds such as parrots. This could also be the reason the early information calls the birds parakeets. Budgerigars or “budgies” are Australian according to the most recent story. And 50 years elapsed between sightings of the east Carolina parakeet in Florida swamp forests searched by ornithologists and the appearance of “budgies from the open interior portions of Australia” in residential areas in Florida. It would seem someone released the most recent birds in hopes of reintroducing the species. My dictionary lists a parrot as bird of an order including parakeets, cockatoos, lories and macaws with a short hooked bill and often bright feathers. I’m wondering whether it is possible the Florida birds are the same species more then 100 years apart introduced from separate locations of the world. The earlier information I had form Wildlife Federation writers and a bird artist who tracked the last parakeet in ornithological writings believed changes in habitat accounted for the greatest losses of the parakeets. Mr. Pranty notes in his more recent observation of budgies population that loss of nesting places contributes to the drop in numbers of the budgies, “a few of which escaped (?) captivity and multiplied in the wild (in bird houses provided).” We will probably be hearing more on this subject as time passes.
BIRD NOTES On Thursday I saw two juncos eating sunflower seeds in my yard. The first juncos seen this fall, they always arrive on schedule. As I write this on Friday a few robins are in the yard and “my” bluebirds are still with me. The great crested flycatcher mentioned last week hasn’t been seen for several days. Just before the front moved through and the weather changed flocks of warblers flitted in the birch tree branches and after a short time moved on. I didn’t recognize their sounds (not good at that) and I didn’t get identifying marks. Some yellow-rumped warblers were much more visible drinking at the birdbath, on the ground, in the garden and in the birch tree before they moved on. I don’t know whether I missed them during migration or the numbers are down. I didn’t see white-throated and white-crowned sparrows this fall, very few song sparrows.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: People doing good need not worry about being caught in the act.
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