Hi all, I was just posting a sighting on Eremaea of a presumed escapee Cockatiel that I saw in a reserve Coogee in Sydney. I did a quick search out of interest of “Lost Cockatiels” and was rather surprised to see the large volumes of “lost birds” on Gumtree. The link is here:http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-lost-found/sydney/lost+cockatiel/k0c18437l3003435 I wonder how many birds (budgies, parrots, etc.) are actually “lost” each year and which species would actually survive their escape. Personally I am not a fan of having birds or animals in captivity. Cheers,Charles Hunter
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Reminds me of watching a yellow Cockatiel flying across an oval and disappearing in a cloud of yellow feathers as the local Australian Hobby got its lunch. It did not even try to dodge as wild birds generally do, so unless they learn quick they will not live long. Cheers Chris On 6/01/2016 9:20 AM, Charles Hunter wrote:
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Here is an extract (from page 47) of some of the relevant text from my 2006 book: Canberra Birds: A Report on the first 21 years of the Garden Bird Survey there is more detail of records under individual species. From which I can update that the Common Starling and House Sparrow have both declined drastically since then as has the Myna given the very extensive eradication program we have had here. The Cockatiel is one of the better survivors local and that is hardly surprising. Introduced species and escaped or released pet birds Some other studies have focused on the hypothesis that exotic species are better adapted to the urban or suburban environment than are native species. Long (1981) provided a global overview of this issue. Canberra is extensively built within mainly native woodland (although often exotic grassy understorey). There are no extensive areas of absence of native vegetation and most GBS sites comprise Australian and exotic vegetation. Pryor & Banks (2001) have described the vegetation. All 10 exotic bird species with ACT populations (Mallard, Rock Dove, Spotted Turtle-Dove, Skylark, House Sparrow, European Greenfinch, European Goldfinch, Common Blackbird, Common Starling and Common Myna) were recorded in the GBS. However as a group, exotic species do not dominate the bird community. Canberra does not have any introduced species that are not also well represented in other major cities of eastern Australia. Canberra is also lacking in large feral populations of: Spotted Turtle-Dove, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Nutmeg Mannikin, European Greenfinch, Red-whiskered Bulbul and Song Thrush that are well established in some other major cities of eastern Australia (Chapman 1969). The only dominant species, more than 5% of the bird population (Huhtula & Jarvinen 1977) in Canberra are the Common Starling, House Sparrow and recently the Common Myna. Of the rest, two more are ranked within the top 32 most often recorded species (with the next one at 113). The 21 years results show that the Common Starling and House Sparrow have been the two most abundant species, though both are in decline. The Common Myna has shown a dramatic increase in the same time. The increase in this species is of concern because of its nest competition with other birds. There are many exotic and Australian species of (mainly) parrots, pigeons and finches that have been recorded rarely. These are often pet birds that have escaped or their progeny. It is clear that the frequency of these birds in the GBS (Appendix 1) closely matches the relative frequency at which these species are kept in captivity (Shephard 1994). For example, the Budgerigar is by far the most common bird pet and has many more GBS records than any other species whose presence occurs most often as escaped or released pets. It is also clear that some species survive much better than others, post release. Escaped native parrots often associate with similar sized common native species for extended periods. For a few species that occur in low numbers naturally in the region, as well as being kept captive, it is difficult to assess the extent to which these occurrences are natural (Veerman 1991a). —–Original Message—– Charles Hunter Sent: Wednesday, 6 January 2016 9:21 AM Hi all, I was just posting a sighting on Eremaea of a presumed escapee Cockatiel that I saw in a reserve Coogee in Sydney. I did a quick search out of interest of “Lost Cockatiels” and was rather surprised to see the large volumes of “lost birds” on Gumtree. The link is here:http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-lost-found/sydney/lost+cockatiel/k0c18437l3 003435 I wonder how many birds (budgies, parrots, etc.) are actually “lost” each year and which species would actually survive their escape. Personally I am not a fan of having birds or animals in captivity. Cheers,Charles Hunter
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Hi Charles, maybe all the lost birds are sitting in a gum tree ? —–Original Message—– Charles Hunter Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2016 8:51 AM Hi all, I was just posting a sighting on Eremaea of a presumed escapee Cockatiel that I saw in a reserve Coogee in Sydney. I did a quick search out of interest of “Lost Cockatiels” and was rather surprised to see the large volumes of “lost birds” on Gumtree. The link is here:http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-lost-found/sydney/lost+cockatiel/k0c18437l3 003435 I wonder how many birds (budgies, parrots, etc.) are actually “lost” each year and which species would actually survive their escape. Personally I am not a fan of having birds or animals in captivity. Cheers,Charles Hunter
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I believe there are actually Facebook groups set up specifically for lost birds, so it might be worth seeing if you’ve got a local one. Since joining a local lost pets group, I’ve been astounded at the number of pets that go missing, mostly dogs and cats, and I’m starting to wonder what percentage of pet sales are just replacing lost ones. Sent from my iPad
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