Mike -

I am not *very* informed either,
hence my msg about intro'd birds in gen'l.

What I have read about Monk Parakeets is that
they are (1) very noisy and take over other
birds' territories even more than Starlings (!)
and (2) very destructive to plants, e.g.,
able to chop down even corn stalks with their
extremely strong beaks, so that agriculture
enthusiasts (most of us I would think) would not
be pleased.

I had not heard the story about possible
Carolina Parakeet substitutes -- I wonder what
CPs would have done to corn fields -- maybe they
were shot by farmers in the early days? Afriend
of mine once had a job in Mexico chasing away
crows & parrots from the corn fields -- an important
job, as a flock of parrots can lay waste to many acres
of corn plants in just a few minutes, I am told.

-- Alan Richards / Naselle WA
alanr at ednet1.osl.or.gov
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