Former pet parrots breeding and thriving in 23 U.S. states [View all]

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The cold, harsh winters of cities like Chicago, New York, and Seattle are no match for the tiny monk parakeet. Native to several countries in South America, the bright green bird, also known as the Quaker parrot, is one of 25 parrot species once kept only as pets in the U.S. that are now thriving in the wild of 23 states.

While most have stuck to warm-weather states like California, Texas, and Florida, the monk parakeet doesn't seem concerned with dropping temperatures or frozen food sources.

"We think they're basically pre-adapted to survive in cold climates because they build their own nests and they can vary their diets so dramatically across the year," says Stephen Pruett-Jones, an ecologist at the University of Chicago, who has been studying birds for decades. "They roost in their nest every single night of the year, so the nest is really more like a home to the monk parakeet. And their diet changes completely during the winter to seed in backyard bird feeders."

During the research for a paper published April 9 in the Journal of Ornithology, Pruett-Jones, along with Jennifer Uehling, currently working on her Ph.D. at Cornell University, and Jason Tallant, of the University of Michigan, found that of the 190 parrot species that have been imported to the U.S. as pets since the 1950s and '60s, 56 have been spotted in the wild of 43 states. Twenty-five of those species have established breeding populations.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/tropical-pet-parrots-settle-united-states/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=Editorial::add=Animals_20190606::rid=594148660