The disappearance of the Budgerigar from the ABA Area
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Transcript of The disappearance of the Budgerigar from the ABA Area
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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
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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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
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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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
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
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sp.shp, a. E. 1979. s, hb lz, bee
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Fl. Me he, uvey f Fl, gevlle.
shp, a. 1981. Melpc - WHat? [c]. Florida
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seve, H. M. B. H. ae. 1994. The Birdlife of
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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.