sandee@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee) (07/12/90)
> >Two Australian parrots! How quaint. I have a few questions for you >folks in the USA/Canada/UK, if I may > >1) Are any other Australian birds popular pets? > >2) Have any Australian birds managed to establish themselves as feral > populations overseas? (We have heaps of English, European and > Asian feral species here, :-(, but no American as far as I know.) > > Bill Venables, Dept. Statistics, | Email: wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au > Univ. of Adelaide, South Australia. | Phone: +61 8 228 5412 Don't know about question (1). I'll leave that to the other half of this newsgroup. Caged Australian birds have escaped or been released in the U.S. just like othe caged birds, but the only established feral population is that of budgerigars on the west coast of Florida around Tampa ; those birds have been there for twenty years or more, although they were apparently severley hit by the extreme cold of the last winter. Budgerigars are also occasional (but not established) on the Gold Coast (Miami, etc.). Other than that, a Sulphur-crested Cockatiel has been hanging out in Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, McAllen, TX for the last two years. Many attempts to catch it have failed. As this is one of America's most favorite birdwatching spots, the bird's become quite a character. Daan Sandee sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 (904) 644-7045