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You don't see this every day!

post #1 of 22
12/3/10 at 7:57pm
Thread Starter 
My neighbor's tree.



Did you see what was unusual in it?

Look closer.



Yes, these are parrots. No, we don't live in some tropical paradise. Apparently, some years ago someone's parrots escaped. We have had a flock of them in our area now for quite some time, at least 10 years.
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post #2 of 22
12/3/10 at 8:05pm
that is just too cool! At first I thought they were frogs in the tree until the second picture. So, are they tame? Can you get near them at all? Wow, if they talk, I bet it gets noisy around your house.
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post #3 of 22
12/3/10 at 8:05pm
I didn't know they could live in "the wild" here in the US. I used to see all sorts of beautiful, exotic birds when I lived in Puerto Rico.

My uncle was visiting his son's business and stepped outside to smoke. He saw a parrot in a tree. My cousin held out his arm and the bird tried to land on it. (He was so startled he pulled his arm back, and the bird ended up on the ground.) It turned out to be a baby African Gray Parrot. The vet said its wings had been improperly clipped (that's how they think he escaped) and it would have died after a few more days outside. I guess NC doesn't have the climate or food sources that Texas does? My cousin tried to find the bird's owners to no avail; he ended up keeping him for years until his evil S.O. talked him into giving him away.

Thank you so much for sharing. What beautiful pictures.
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post #4 of 22
12/3/10 at 8:09pm
Thread Starter 
That is, I believe, a Bradford pear tree, and they were eating the little berries (the Bradford pear doesn't actually produce human-edible fruit). I caught just a few; there were about 20 in the tree when I came home.

We have rough weather here in the winter, but they manage to survive somehow. They have had a huge communal nest on the communications tower at the fire station a couple of blocks from here.

They are very "talky." The make all kinds of noise as they fly around. I enjoy them, but I suppose the purists would want to eliminate them as an introduced species.
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post #5 of 22
12/3/10 at 8:24pm
They are very pretty.
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post #6 of 22
12/3/10 at 8:35pm
No ones pet escaped. The Quakers are escaped, or even set free (more common than accidental escape), wild caught imports. They're actually quite tolerant to colder temps and colonies have set up in many cities all over the world. iirc, there's some in NYC.
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post #7 of 22
12/4/10 at 2:09am
That's really cool! Decades ago a couple of green parrots escaped from the Wilhelma (Stuttgart zoo) and "went native" in the Castle Gardens (central park). Nobody thought they or their descendants would survive the winters here on their own (it's currently -7°C/19.4°F at 11 a.m.), but they've managed to for around 40 years. I've heard the same is true in Cologne.
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post #8 of 22
12/4/10 at 5:03am
They are absolutely beautiful!
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post #9 of 22
12/4/10 at 7:49am
Oh wow, I thought they would've died in the winter too. Always takes me by surprise to see parrots in the wild, which is a shame.
I wonder how bad of an impact they have on the native flora & fauna though?
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post #10 of 22
12/4/10 at 7:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrblanche View Post
That is, I believe, a Bradford pear tree, and they were eating the little berries (the Bradford pear doesn't actually produce human-edible fruit). I caught just a few; there were about 20 in the tree when I came home.

We have rough weather here in the winter, but they manage to survive somehow. They have had a huge communal nest on the communications tower at the fire station a couple of blocks from here.

They are very "talky." The make all kinds of noise as they fly around. I enjoy them, but I suppose the purists would want to eliminate them as an introduced species.
That is a Bradford pear tree. We have them lining our driveway. We never get any parrots, though. s'not fair!
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post #11 of 22
12/4/10 at 7:57am
Wow, what a remarkable sight!
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post #12 of 22
12/4/10 at 8:20am
That is pretty cool! I can only imagine what the tree looked like with 20+ in it!! Must be a beautiful sight
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post #13 of 22
12/4/10 at 9:38am
That's cool! I've only ever seen parrots in a pet store.
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post #14 of 22
12/4/10 at 10:02am
Oh my goodness! I did notice one in the first picture, but to see more than one in the closeup ... Parrot family. Very cute.
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post #15 of 22
12/4/10 at 11:24am
Even more peculiar, there has been a flock of Quaker Parrots (aka Monk Parakeets) living wild in the Hyde Park neighborhood of the south side of Chicago - since the early 1980's. No one knows where they came from.

The high temperatures this week in Chicago will be in the 20's Fahrenheit, with lows in the single digits. This is usual winter weather (though a bit early for this cold), and somehow, they survive. Though colonies of these birds have been established in other cities, Chicago is the coldest climate they are known to survive in. They are native to tropical South America.


Robin
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post #16 of 22
12/5/10 at 1:46am
Oh that is so cool !!

We have no native parakeets in my country, but whenever I go to a big city I keep my eyes and ears open for the rose ringed parakeet, they have escaped and managed to set up sizeable colonies in big city parks, there are thousands of birds and they are multiplying very fast. There are some concerns because they are evicting native woodpeckers from their nesting spots.

There are loads of them in Amsterdam, at dusk they all fly to their main sleeping sites and when you look up it looks a bit like the Amazon with all those little groups of parrots flying overhead. Kind of weird when you are walking along the 17th century Dutch canals.
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post #17 of 22
12/5/10 at 3:24am
My sister lives just outside London and when I was over there visiting I saw flocks of them there as well, maybe they are taking over the world

Oh and Happy St Nicholas Mimosa
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post #18 of 22
12/5/10 at 7:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mimosa View Post
There are loads of them in Amsterdam, at dusk they all fly to their main sleeping sites and when you look up it looks a bit like the Amazon with all those little groups of parrots flying overhead. Kind of weird when you are walking along the 17th century Dutch canals.
My nieces were in Amsterdam in spring, and took photos of the parakeets.
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post #19 of 22
12/5/10 at 7:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pushylady View Post
Oh wow, I thought they would've died in the winter too. Always takes me by surprise to see parrots in the wild, which is a shame.
I wonder how bad of an impact they have on the native flora & fauna though?
The wild Quakers in North America have been studied for over 20 years.
Most are descended from two busted crates of birds that arrived in Southern Cali.

They are sedentary colony birds and one of the few parrot species that build communal nests.
Their impact has been nil, in fact they seem to have filled the niche left vacant by the extinct Carolina Parakeet of the South East US.
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post #20 of 22
12/5/10 at 3:46pm
That's interesting Arlyn. How unusual for this introduced species to just conveniently fill a niche like that. I remember reading about the extinct Carolina parakeet and how the burrs that was their favourite food are now out of control.
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post #21 of 22
12/5/10 at 4:52pm
There's a flock of these on the seminary campus in Fort Worth, too! I was always surprised to see the, but they've lived there for years. They're fun to watch.
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post #22 of 22
12/6/10 at 10:46am
Ha, in the first photo I thought they were big reptiles, until I saw the close-up.

There are tons of green parrots here in Long Beach. They are LOUD!!! It makes me laugh to hear them. Sometimes I want to tell them to use their inside voices, but, well, they are outside, after all..

They seem to especially like to eat the magnolia tree berry thingys. (yeah... I'm not that technical and scientific. sorry.)
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