Hi tweets. For the past two months, I've watched with interest when a
small flock of parakeets made it up to my yard in the Seward Park area.
After conversing with Fred Bird and digging around a little bit I was even
more intrigued. Fred and I are going to prepare a summary of the status
of feral psittacines in the greater Seattle area, to submit to WA Birds or
Northwestern Naturalist. **If you have any information about feral
psittacines in Washington, we would be grateful to hear about it.** This
information is interesting and could be important if someday these flocks
become established and sustainable, such as those in San Francisco,
southern Florida, etc.

Currently, it appears we have something like this:

Seward Park area: at least seven Scarlet-fronted Parakeets (aka
Red-fronted Conure), _Aratinga wagleri_, possibly nesting as just tonight
I watched them investigating cavities in a broken-topped tree in Seward
Park, as others have also reported. Also reported one year was a
Rose-ringed Parakeet, _Psittacula krameri_.

Maple Leaf area: at least four (formerly six) Scarlet-fronted Parakeets
(formerly ID'd as Crimson-fronted Parakeets), undoubtedly nesting as their
numbers have risen from 2 to 4 in 1993, and 4 to 6 in 1994, plus juveniles
were noted.

West Seattle: a nesting pair of Monk Parakeets _Myiopsitta monachus_.

And rumors of birds at Carkeek Park and Renton.

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html