I found a parakeet in my front yard today

ibleedburgundy

ibleedburgundy

The Anti-Lambo
They're not indigenous to virginia near as I can tell. I walked up to my house and here's this bright yellow/greenish bird walking around my front yard knawing on some clovers. It was right by the walkway and I didn't want to disturb it plus I thought the kids might to see it so I called my wife. She immediately told me someone posted on a local forum that they lost their parakeet. Helluva coincidence that my wife happened to see that post. That post was made on July 6th by someone who lives about .8 of a mile from here. This young bird was outside for 5-6 days but didn't go very far. We had a couple bad storms during that time too. So we emailed them and within 20 minutes or so they came by and started looking around. By that time we had lost track of it. They actually brought their other bird in the cage hoping the lost bird would fly back into it's home. Very nice people. So they located the bird up in a tree and starting making bird calls. The whole thing was pretty funny. And the bird eventually came down and flew right into the cage. So that was good. They were thrilled. The lady said we were "smashing" -I think that's some sort of British compliment or something. So I guess she's not from here.

Okay now someone can tell me cool story bro. :cool:
 
That's great that things turned out as they did. I can't see that bird surviving for long in the wild, especially being so colorful and lacking camo.

Although, a since passed friend of mine years ago had an albino ferret with red eyes while he was going to VCU in Richmond. It got out and disappeared for a month or two. If memory serves, it just showed back at home one day. Anyway, he got it back. He lived in The Fan district, i lived West End. In The Fan, amazing it survived, not eaten by rats or the homeless, not end up draped over the shoulder of a tranny hooker.

I wasn't a fan of "Tigger".

cool story bro
 
ibleedburgundy said:
They're not indigenous to virginia near as I can tell. I walked up to my house and here's this bright yellow/greenish bird walking around my front yard knawing on some clovers. It was right by the walkway and I didn't want to disturb it plus I thought the kids might to see it so I called my wife. She immediately told me someone posted on a local forum that they lost their parakeet. Helluva coincidence that my wife happened to see that post. That post was made on July 6th by someone who lives about .8 of a mile from here. This young bird was outside for 5-6 days but didn't go very far. We had a couple bad storms during that time too. So we emailed them and within 20 minutes or so they came by and started looking around. By that time we had lost track of it. They actually brought their other bird in the cage hoping the lost bird would fly back into it's home. Very nice people. So they located the bird up in a tree and starting making bird calls. The whole thing was pretty funny. And the bird eventually came down and flew right into the cage. So that was good. They were thrilled. The lady said we were "smashing" -I think that's some sort of British compliment or something. So I guess she's not from here.

Okay now someone can tell me cool story bro. :cool:
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Awesome!
 
We get lots of parakeets here, I put out a seed mix for them, they are gregarious, don't know if they would survive in the wild in the US but they are not native to New Zealand and have established them selves there.
 
Birds are more clever than you think. There's several thriving non-native birds in the US now (most notable the House Sparrow, from the 'old world').

House Sparrow, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Ever see a Goldfinch? Oriole? Tanager?

Very brightly colored and doing quite well.

American Goldfinch, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Being able to fly up into trees to avoid predators gives them quite the advantage. Although cats preying on birds is a huge impact on their numbers, the cats still only get a bird about 10% of the time they try.
 
notCardio said:
Well, yeah, and I don't think a parakeet would have too easy a time outdoors in a Virginia winter.
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Definitely not, it wouldn't know to leave as temps fell. It would probably be found frozen to a branch somewhere.

But until it got too cold it could scrape by on bird feeders.
 
Yeah the owners said other birds were the biggest threat. There are some big bastards around here - bald eagles and hawks and crows.
 
Being conspicuous and essentially domesticated, he wouldn't have made it to winter. Any slight hesitation to avoid a problem and he'd of been a goner. Even humans could have been a threat.

I've got a story about some boys out on a walk through a large city park who encountered either a very aggressively friendly, or possibly rabid, "weasle". The freak out factor was strong, and didn't end well for the "weasle". Sad story, really. Little guy was probably just trying to say, "Hey fellas! I'm kind of lost. No, wait, i'm a pretty good guy, can we be friends?" But I won't tell that story.
 
There is a pretty large population of feral parrots in Austin, TX. It's an established population that seems to have no trouble breeding in the wild. They've been there for years. Good places to spot them are Zilker Park and the hike and bike trails down around the lake.
 
I haven't lived there since the late 80s, just an occasional visitor now. I think Chili lives in Austin.
 
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