The disappearance of the Budgerigar from the ABA Area

7/21/2019 The disappearance of the Budgerigar from the ABA Area

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The Disappearance of the

B i r d i n g a u g u s t 2 0 1 526

Bill Pranty

Bayonet Point, Florida

[email protected]

Some people dont like budgies

The little yellow brats

They eat them up for breakfast

Or give them to their cats

from The Fat Budgie

John Lennon, 1965

a he Bue n we-cenl Flo epeen-e he only le n peen been populon

foun oue he nve ne, he expon

epeen he lo of eully occun pece

fom he Ween Hemphee. the hoy of Bue-

n Flo pove well h even le n obu

populon of exoc b cn ppe ece

fe he founnoen cuony noe fo

hoe who beleve h populon of b h

numbe n he hune of nvul houl

be conee eblhe. Hernando

Beach, Hernando County, Florida; March

2009. Photo by Reinhard Geisler.

The Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) is a small

(seven-inch, one-ounce) parakeet endemic to much

of the Australian interior. Budgerigars have been bred

in captivity since the 1840s and are the third most abundant

pet worldwide after the domestic cat and the domestic dog.

Despite their abundance in captivity, only one large and

persistent breeding population of Budgerigars (Budgies)

was ever established outside their native range. This popula-

tion, in the Tampa Bay region located along Floridas central

Gulf coast, was founded by the early 1960s and persisted

for more than 50 years before recently becoming extirpated.

What went wrong with what

was widely considered to be

one of the most successful

introduced bird populations

in North America?


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Budgerigar from the ABA Area

a B a . o r g / B i r d i n g 27a B a . o r g / B i r d i n g 27

from the ABA AreaThe earliest report of Budgerigarsin Florida came from Cooke and

Knappen (1940), who presented

no specific information. Based on

hearsay, earlier writers reported

that large numbers of Budgeri-

garsas many as 3,000 individu-

als at once!were released into

the St. Petersburg area beginning

in the 1950s (Lipp 1963, Shapiro1979, Wenner and Hirth 1984).

Hundreds of free-flying Budgeri-

gars were found in the St. Peters-

burg and New Port Richey areas

by the early 1960s, and through

natural spread and/or additional

releases, colonized other cities in

the Tampa Bay region: Bradenton

by the mid-1960s, Sarasota and

Tampa by the late 1970s, and Her-

nando Beach by the early 1990s

(Pranty 2001, 2015).

Budgerigars were found in many

other Florida cities, such as Jack-

sonville, Gainesville, Winter Park,

Cocoa, Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie,

Fort Myers, West Palm Beach, Na-ples, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami

(Wenner and Hirth 1984, Pranty

2001). However, these flocks,

which usually numbered just a few

individuals, were short-lived and

presumably were never established

(Pranty 2015, contrary to Wenner

alhouh w no e o ee ock of

few houn Bue peche

houle-o-houle on powelne u-

n he 1970 n ely 1980, he uho

no we of ny phooph h how

uch mve numbe. the phoo of c.

675 nvul n h by anne shpo

(1981) my epeen he le numbe

of Bue cpue n nle me

fom Flo. By he me phoophy en-ee he l elm, populon n he

e h ppee o been euce o

few ozen nvul ech. the me

n h cle of Bue n he tmp

By eon wee choen o llue ce-

n pec of he nul hoy n o

ocumen he occuence.


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Ben exemely ocl b,

Bue ofen ocke wh

ohe pece, whch n Flo

uully men ove, un,

n ce. Hee, 21 Bu-

e he powelne wh

rock Peon, Euopen s-

ln, n Bown-hee Cow-

b. New Port Richey, Pasco

County, Florida; November 1997.

Photo by Ken Tracey.

28 B i r d i n g a u g u s t 2 0 1 5

D I S A P P E A R A N C E O F T H E B U D G E R I G A R

and Hirth 1984 and Stevenson and

Anderson 1994). Wenner and Hirth

relied exclusively on hearsay data for

information on Budgerigars foundoutside the Tampa Bay region, and

their informants often greatly over-

estimated the number of Budgerigars

present (in some cases, the infor-

mants may have misidentified other

species of parakeets). Wenner and

Hirth (1984) claimed that Budgeri-

gars were common and breeding

along the southern Atlantic coast

from Fort Pierce to Miami.

In contrast, citing Christmas BirdCount and other ornithological data,

I showed that the largest numbers

of Budgerigars in these cities ranged

from 0 to 11, with breeding not

documented anywhere in the re-

gion (Pranty 2001). Stevenson and

Anderson (1994) repeated much of

the misinformation published by

Wenner and Hirth (1984); addition-ally, they used very liberal criteria to

determine establishment of Budgeri-

gar populations.

Numbers of Budgerigars in the

Tampa Bay region peaked at perhaps

20,000 or more individuals during

the late 1970s. The range, which was

chiefly coastal, extended about 100

miles from Hudson through Venice.

Following the period of rapid popu-

lation increase and range expansionduring the 1960s and 1970s, Bud-

gerigars in Florida began a decline

in the early 1980s. Totals on Christ-

mas Bird Counts in the Tampa Bay

region declined from nearly 7,000


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A B A . O R G / B I R D I N G 29

Budgerigars during the 19771978

season to fewer than 400 individuals

ten years later (Pranty 2001). By the

late 1990s, this population crash had

caused the extirpation of Budgerigars

from four of the six counties in their

former established range. The species

was last found at Bradenton in 1991,

Tampa in 1992, Sarasota in 1993, and

St. Petersburg in 1997. The two final

remnant flocks, at Bayonet Point/

Hudson (later, just Hudson) and Her-

nando Beach, were within 10 miles of

each other and represented the two

northernmost populations. Although

numbering fewer than 100 individu-

als each by the mid-1990s, these

two flocks survived for 20 additional

years. The final individuals from the

Hudson and Hernando Beach popu-

lations died out within days of each

other in April 2014 (Pranty 2015).

Several causes of the population

decline have been proposed, in-

cluding abnormally cold tempera-

tures and disease, but I believe that

competition over nesting sites from

European Starlings and especially

House Sparrows was the most im-

in Flo, Bue wee hu-

mn commenlhey ele on

humn fo he ec uppo.

alhouh Bue coul fee on

n ohe ee, commecl

b ee pobbly pove he v

majority of their food. With House

Sparrows, Hernando Beach, Hernando

County, Florida; December 2009.

Photo by Bill Pranty.


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B i r d i n g a u g u s t 2 0 1 5

portant cause of the decline (Pranty

2001, 2015). Many homeowners

whose yards contained Budgeri-

gar nest boxes reported that HouseSparrows were direct nest competi-

tors. This behavior was confirmed

by a Masters study in the New Port

Richey area in 1978, where in many

instances House Sparrows entered

Budgerigar nest boxes, punctured

and removed the eggs, and then

took over the box for their own

nesting activity (Shapiro 1979).

Extirpation of local Budgeri-

gar flocks due to House Spar-rows usurping nest boxes contin-

ued through at least 1999 (Pranty

2001). A reduction in the number

of Budgerigars from an area resulted

in fewer nest boxes being provided

in subsequent years, which caused

the local population to decline fur-

ther (Pranty 2015).

With Budgerigars now extirpated

from Floridaand the ABA Areavotes later this year by the Florida

Ornithological Society Records

Committee and the ABA Checklist

Committee to delist the species are

anticipated. Until 2014, removing

an extirpated exotic from the ABA

Checklist meant that birders could

no longer count the species on lists

submitted to ABA (see Pranty et

al. 2008:183). However, in 2014,

the ABA Recording Standards andEthics Committee voted to allow

listers to continue to count exotics

that have been extirpated from the

ABA Area and removed from the

ABA Checklistby the ABA Checklist

Committee.

Follown he emovl of ll he ne

boxe, n 2012, he Bue n He-

nno Bech wnle ply. Mo

emnn nvul, uch he wohee, wee ul mle (noe he blue

cee), n h kewe ex o my

hve conbue o he expon of

he nl Bue. Hernando Beach,

Hernando County, Florida; January

2013. Photo by Jeffrey A. Gordon .


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A B A . O R G / B I R D I N G 31

alhouh ome Bue nee n bo v, boken eelh,

n nul cve n n, mo ue peclly bul ne boxe hwee plce n ububn y by he houn. the ennce of hee

boxe peclue mo ohe pece, bu Houe spow coul ely

ene. Houe spow uupe mny Bue ne boxe, ofen fe

puncun he pkee e n evcn he ul. the uho be-

leve h compeon wh Houe spow ove nen e w he

pmy cue of he Bue eclne n evenul expon n

Flo. By he m-2000, ll of he Bue been Henno

Bech wee beleve o be ece o nle ububn y h

conne pehp 40 ne boxe n cloe poxmy. th popey

chne ownehp n 2012 n ll he boxe wee emove, cun

he Bue o ply eclne o expon. Hernando Beach,Hernando County, Florida; April 2007. Photo by Bill Pranty.

an ul mle Bue h ju fe h oon-o-ee uhe.

dnuhn beween he exe of Bue ely ccom-

plhe by exmnn cee colozue n mle n pnk o oney

n femle. an Bue be on he pen: aul hve

unbe yellow foehe n whe e, whee youn b hve

hevly be foehe n k e. Hernando Beach, Hernando

County, Florida; June 2009. Photo by Bill Pranty.


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B i r d i n g a u g u s t 2 0 1 5

Literature Cited

Cke, M. t. P. Kppe. 1940. sme b lze

nh amec. Transactions of the Fifth North American

Wildlife Conference, pp. 176183.Lpp, F. 1963. Pkee cy c. Florida Nat-

uralist36(1-B): 1.

Py, B. 2001. the Be Fl: re fll f

exc pc. North American Birds55: 389397.

Py, B. 2015. Exp f he Be (Melopsittacus

undulatus) fm Fl. Florida Field Naturalist43: pe.

Py, B., J. L. d, s. C. Hel, a. W. Ke, P. E. Lehm, M.

W. Lckw, B. Mcvh, K. J. Zmme. 2008. ABA

Checklist: Birds of the Continental United States and Canada,

eveh e. amec B ac, Cl

sp.shp, a. E. 1979. s, hb lz, bee

bly f he fel Be (Melopsittacus undulatus)

Fl. Me he, uvey f Fl, gevlle.

shp, a. 1981. Melpc - WHat? [c]. Florida

Wildlife34(6): 2830.

seve, H. M. B. H. ae. 1994. The Birdlife of

Florida. uvey Pe f Fl, gevlle.

Wee, a. s. d. H. Hh. 1984. s f he fel B-

e Fl.Journal of Field Ornithology55: 214219.

th ul mle, one of hee Bue emnn Huon, wfoun e le hn monh le, n he ohe wo nvul

wee neve n een. th me funhe he nl phooph

of Bue n Pco Couny, whee nle oo 36 ye ele

conne le 6,000 nvul. Hudson, Pasco County, Florida;

March 2014. Photo by Dorian Anderson.

Bue e bunn n cpvy

n e ely obne; wo b, he ce,

n monh upply of ee cn be puche

fo $25 loclly. thu, Bue ecpe o e

elee fequenly. such b, whch e ofen

whe, blue, o yellow vculul moph, ely

uvve fo moe hn few y; hey houl no

be oce wh he fomely eblhe popul-

on lon Flo cenl gulf co. With Great

Egret, Honeymoon Island State Park, Pinellas County,

Florida; September 2014. Photo by Tim Kalbach.

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The disappearance of the Budgerigar from the ABA Area