RE: [cobirds] ... and escaped exotic (Platte River Trail just north of Oxford - Arapahoe County)

At last a Cobirds post that I can chime in on!

 

Peter is of course correct on his Australian-native Budgerigar information, but let me add that for many years "Budgies" were an ABA/AOU "countable" species, although not in Colorado.  In the last couple of decades of the previous century large flocks of seemingly established Budgies roamed Florida, particularly on the central Gulf Coast. If you search eBird records you will find reports of 50, 100 and even 150 at a time.  I remember seeing them strung along power lines by the dozens approaching the Dunedin Causeway on the way to Honeymoon Island State Park near Clearwater.

 

And then they were gone. 

 

By 2010 "countable" Budgerigar were only possible in Hernando Beach, Florida where a last colony was hanging on until about 2012 or so.  Now they have been removed from the ABA/AOU list—an extirpated introduced species (but not the only one, as I think certain Francolin species are in the same boat, or off the boat as it were, for the Lower 48 anyway).

 

Lest you think that the way of the Budgie must be a real outlier; not so fast.  Other formerly locally-common, introduced species like Spotted Dove in L.A. have also been reduced to almost scattered and possibly no longer viable breeding populations.  In fact, if you recall the reports published at the end of last year documenting a loss of over 300 million song birds in North America, guess who was at the top of the list with about 10% of the total -30.000.000)?  House Sparrow! whose populations have declined with the decline of small farms across the US.  And get this, even Eurasian Collared Doves can be hard to spot in Florida these days—the place were they initially were established, I believe.

 

One final anecdote:  Birding is so challenging here in Florida in June that Florida birders have come up with a "June Challenge".  Each year many birders participate in a challenge to see the most species in their home county, but the kicker is that we do so using some sort of clever "nom-de-plume".  Literally.  Here in my home county, Pinellas, I (Gus Hawk) was joined in the competition by such ingeniously undercover birders as Ann Hinga, Dick Cissel, and my favorite, Palmer N. Yeager. And, of course, Bud Gerigar!  Well here is the kicker—Bud just happens to be in Colorado right now, just when Bryan found the beauty below.  Go figure.

 

Bill Kaempfer

Safety Harbor, FL

 

From: cobirds@googlegroups.com <cobirds@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Peter Gent
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2020 1:37 PM
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com
Subject: Fwd: [cobirds] Possible yellow-shafted or hybrid Northern Flicker (Chatfield State Park - Douglas County) and escaped exotic (Platte River Trail just north of Oxford - Arapahoe County)

 

Bryan,

 

This is a Budgerigar: a commonly kept cage bird and native to the drier parts of Australia.

 

Cheers,  Peter Gent,  Boulder.

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: modise <namaqua76@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 11:21 AM
Subject: [cobirds] Possible yellow-shafted or hybrid Northern Flicker (Chatfield State Park - Douglas County) and escaped exotic (Platte River Trail just north of Oxford - Arapahoe County)
To: Colorado Birds <cobirds@googlegroups.com>

 

At 6:00 a.m. today, on the paved trail that heads north out of Chatfield State Park from the NE corner (parallels the east side of the dog park), about 50 yards in, I saw a Northern flicker with the distinctive red V on the back of its neck.  I could not see the front, so I don't know if it was yellow or red-shafted.

 

At 7:00 a.m., imagine my surprise when I saw this guy on the golf course fence about 1/10th of a mile north of Oxford on the Platte River Trail (just north of the "traffic" circle).  I guess it's an escaped pet - no idea what kind of bird it is!  It was quite tame and let me approach, but it would not come to me when called.

 

Bryan Arnold

Littleton, Jefferson County

 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/c451be62-bf3c-4eab-ac36-4b2dd99a98b6o%40googlegroups.com.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CADEFvCdNma5EH-4F7a45bFBvVbE7cYfuwEExw9qGpCOMiJodBA%40mail.gmail.com.