BirdNote; Monk Parakeets

BirdNote®

Monk Parakeets Fly Freely

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Monk Parakeets calling, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/132540, 0.11-13]

If you live in North America, parrots can often seem like exotic ambassadors from the far-off jungles of Brazil or the wilds of Australia. Especially since North America’s once-common native species, the Carolina Parakeet, has been extinct since the early 20th Century.

[Monk Parakeets calling, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/132540, 0.11-13]

But more and more parrots are making this continent their home. Since the 1960s at least, Monk Parakeets have been free-flying and reproducing in the US — which is to say they have become naturalized. The Monk Parakeet, with lime-green back, gray and yellow under parts, and deep blue wings, is also known as the Quaker Parrot, and it’s a native of southern South America. Initial fears that it would devastate agricultural crops haven’t materialized, and it’s become the most numerous free-flying parrot in the country.

[Monk Parakeets calling, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/132540, 0.11-13]

Escaped Monk Parakeets now have self-sustaining populations in many areas across the country: Chicago; Dallas; New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; and Bridgeport, Connecticut, among others. So clearly, in the wild, they can gradually acclimate to cold.

And Monk Parakeets are not alone. By 2015, at least a dozen other foreign parrot species were nesting in the US, especially in Florida and California.

[Monk Parakeets calling, http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/132540, 0.11-13]

For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.

Support for BirdNote comes from the Port Aransas Tourism Bureau. Info on February's Whooping Crane Festival and hundreds of species of birds to see year-round at VisitPortAransas.com.

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. 132540 recorded by Peter A. Hosner.

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Sallie Bodie

© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org October 2018 Narrator: Mary McCann

ID# MOPA-01-2016-10-10 MOPA-01