On Mon, 16 Sep 1996, Dennis Paulson wrote:
> If they were parakeets, this makes me wonder if there IS more than one
> group of them, unless they bomb around a lot more than we think. That's
> not impossible, as parrots in the tropics can fly many miles from roost
> sites to feeding areas, just as starlings do here.. What do you think,
> Mike and Fred? Were they absent from Maple Leaf and Seward Park when Jane
> saw them?

I doubt there are more than seven and here's why:

During the period Jan. - Aug 1996 Fred says he saw NONE. During that
period I never saw them anywhere outside of the small area between 49th
Ave. S X Hudson St. and Seward Park. They would wander up to our house
and the neighbor's feeder at least twice a day, but despite my walks
around the neighborhood I never found them farther north or west than that
spot until the day a few weeks ago when I heard them at the Montlake Fill
and saw all seven flying over. After that I raced back home to call Fred
and then to Seward Park (driving time ~ 20 minutes if you don't run over
bicyclists) where all was silent. After a ten-fifteen minute wait, two
birds flew in from the north. Now I know they weren't at my house or
nearby when I was home briefly (they're quite talkative), so they must
have been north or west of my house prior to flying in to Seward Park. I
think that all the birds were out scouting things in the north and two
decided to return (probably left the iron on). Also, my neighbor whose
feeder the birds frequent told me she only started seeing seven birds
about January, which is about when Fred reports that he stopped seeing any
up north. This makes sense and fits a two groups-converge-to-one
hypothesis. Now why these birds would coagulate and then split is beyond
me. Maybe they just got sick of all that talking - they all squawk and
nobody listens...

Dennis, I've given greater thought to the mulit-species hypothesis (that
the flock represents more than one species), and checked my notes. There
was a day this spring when I scoped five individuals (25 X 60mm
Spacemaster) at only about 50 feet. They were at my neighbor's feeder and
I took notes on each one's plumage. Two had extensive red feathers on the
head and breast (probably about 10% of feathers were red), and red carpal
patches. This is the character you consider indicative of
Crimson-fronted. Two others had limited red feathers (probably 1-2% of
feathers were red), no red on the underwing, and a small red crown not
touching the eye-ring. These are characters consistent with
Scarlet-fronted or Mitred. The fifth had no red anywhere, consistent with
Green. I was not really considering the possibility that this flock could
be mixed species, that is I had assumed that they were all descendants of
two birds, since breeding was noted in your neighborhood. Plus it was
consistent with somebody losing a pair of birds which then reproduced. Is
there a pattern of plumage change with age among _Aratinga_? Could the
reduced-red individuals represent young of the two most colorful
individuals? With the green one being the youngest? Or perhaps I need to
broaden my view to accept the possibility of several individuals of
perhaps three species escaping or being set free. If the latter case is
true, than the flock is a mixed-species flock, probably comprised of three
species: Crimson-fronted, Mitred, and at least one Green (as Gene
suggested earlier). Ugh. I chosse Mitred over Scarlet-fronted due to
their preference for tree cavities.

Thank goodness people don't introduce and hybridize _Empidonax_
flycatchers. You'd never be able to figure out what you were seeing.

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