We Found Parrots Where They Shouldn't Be!

You might be surprised to learn that there are populations of parrots living wild in the U.S. States like Texas, California, and Illinois all harbor these bright, tropical-looking birds, but their best stronghold might be Florida, and in particular, Miami. We went to Florida on a birding trip, and after making our way south to Palm Beach County, started investigating the parrot situation. After finding some interesting birds such as spot-breasted orioles earlier in the day, we turned our attention to finding one of the more common parrots in the area, the Nanday parakeet. Driving around Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge with our windows open, we heard parrots, and got out to see our first Florida parrot species. It turned out to be monk parakeets, one of the most widespread parrot species in the United States. There's a monk parakeet coming in. They got us. Yeah, monk parakeets are normally species I'm super happy to see. They love to build big stick nests. It's actually a bird that is found a lot farther north because those stick nests are very insulating so they can withstand colder temperatures, but it looks like they're starting to build some nests on the crossbeams of this big tower here. So a cool find, a state bird, but not exactly the parrot species that we were looking for. We got faked out by the parakeets. We thought we had Nanday, but they're actually monk, which is cool, it's just not the one we were looking for today. Monk parakeets are not exclusive to Florida or even warmer weather climates, as they can be found in many northern cities in the U.S., including Chicago and New York. Like so many other non-native species, they got to the U.S. by the way of the pet trade and either escaped or were released from captivity. While they're always fun to see and a state rich with so much parrot diversity, we turned our focus back to finding the Nandays, which have a much smaller range in the country. In most parts of the country, there's really just one or maybe two different species of parrots, even if you go to some of the warmer climates. So if you hear them, you usually got them. But here, there are tons and tons of different parakeets, both naturalized and simply just domesticated, released, invasive, whatever you want to call them. So you don't really know. We thought that we had Nandays when we heard the parrot noises, but apparently we had monk parakeets. So we're going to keep looking for the Nandays, which are supposed to be on this road someplace. We scanned the trees and sky around Loxahatchee, finding other birds but no other parrots. Just as we were about to leave, we had a breakthrough. We were about to go into this market and I heard parrots and then we saw four Nanday parakeets flying overhead. They landed really briefly on these wires, but we technically got them. We got Nanday parakeet. I got some videos of them on the wires and then flying away, but I think we're going to go someplace where we maybe can get some more looks at them. Our sighting of the Nanday parakeets was brief, but we were hoping that it wouldn't be our last. We headed to another area hotspot, Loxahatchee Wetlands. Before even getting in, we heard more parrot chatter. Just heard parrots again and yet again it was monk parakeets. So we're hearing the noises, but every time except for one it's been monk parakeets. We're going to actually go into the place now and maybe we'll get our Nanday parakeet looks and maybe we'll get a short-tailed hawk, but we'll have to see. We looked around the wetlands, getting fantastic looks at a lot of species, but we didn't have any other parrot sightings. The next day, we drove down to Miami and continued our parrot search. It wasn't until we got to Tropical Park, a place known for other exotic birds, that we once again found the most widespread parrot species in the United States. We found a large flock of parrots. They happen to actually all be monk parakeets, so that's a species we've seen in a variety of different places since we've been here and you can probably hear them behind me very loud, but they're a more localized type of parrot. You can find them in colonies together. A lot of the other parrot species here are flying around constantly, sometimes mixing flocks, but these monk parakeet groups seem to contain just monk parakeets most of the time. We looked around the park, enjoying the incredible array of birds that aren't usually found in the U.S., but have ended up living wild in Miami. These Egyptian geese are actually countable in this part of Florida, so we have our lifer countable Egyptian goose. They were not originally native here. They were brought over and then naturalized and you can see that they're in this park with all these other Muscovy ducks and oh man, the Muscovy ducks are coming over and the white ibises are coming over. There are a couple of birds here that are Florida natives. The common gallinule, there's white ibises that are notorious for becoming acclimated to humans and begging for food and somebody else just showed up here and it looks like they might have some things to feed the birds, so all of the birds, even the Florida species, went over there. It's a really funny little ecosystem they have here in this park. The whole time, we heard distant parrot noises and even sometimes saw some quickly flying through. Eventually, we were lucky enough to see a flock of parrots land in a tree near some homes. We went over to the place they landed and found our third parrot species of the trip. We're looking at some yellow chevron parakeets and yellow chevron is in reference to that yellow marking that's on the wing. These are one of the many species of parrots that you can find in this part of Florida. They're not technically countable yet. I believe they're still provisional, but I'm assuming at some point, if the populations continue to be down here, they will get that naturalized label and be countable. Like I said, there's tons of parrots down here in this area and if you can get a look at some of them, it's a really unique experience. These parrots have been really frustrating because we'll be driving with the windows down, we'll hear them, and then they'll just be gone. I'm glad we were finally able to track some down where they're in a tree. We had two come out and give us a really nice view in one of these palms and then most of them are hanging out in this larger tree, but they disappear so quickly. They're like brighter green, but they can still just vanish if they just go into the branches a little bit. A lot of these parrots, if they're not vocal, you wouldn't even know they were there. After a few minutes, the parrots moved on and then so did we. That was a pretty cool encounter with the yellow chevroned parakeets. We actually got to sit and observe them for a while, which is nice because a lot of the time here it's been parrots flying by real fast. You don't really even get a look at it, other than the monk parakeets, which actually sat there like monk parakeets tend to do, but really happy about that sighting. A species that may one day count as an actual naturalized species, so it's exciting to get that now. Next, we went to a park that had a lot of reports of different parrot species. We arrived to very little activity, but what we did find was pretty amazing. Macaws. Yeah, we went to this place that's a known roosting location for a lot of the parrots in the area, and we don't really expect much to be here now because it's kind of the middle of the day. They usually end the day here or start the day here, but we did find two blue and gold macaws, and they're chewing on what looks like a very, very overgrown locust pod. I don't know what it actually is, but you can see where they actually have been chewing on these and picking them off, and must be eating part of them. But really interesting to see these birds that certainly don't belong in the United States thriving in this park. Blue and yellow macaws, also known as blue and gold macaws, are a large parrot species with a native range in the northern tropical part of South America. They are the quintessential bird that one thinks of living in wild untouched forests, and here they are living in the suburban part of Miami. What an interesting opportunity it is to observe, photograph, and get a video of macaws out in Florida, and they're really goofy. They're pulling those pods, and then when they fall, they almost have a look of like, well why did it fall? Like they don't understand it, but that's what they're After seeing the macaws, we headed back north to beat the infamous Miami traffic. In our two days in southern Florida, we found a total of four different parrot species, which we were pretty happy about. However, there are so many more to find. Florida, and Miami in particular, are certainly some of the best places in the country to see parrots. And if you're in the area, I would definitely recommend going out and looking for them. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time on Badgerland Birding.