Gone but not Forgotten
The once abundant Carolina Parakeet was a gregarious bird. They would form large, noisy flocks that fed on cultivated fruits and grains. They would tear apart an apple to get to the seeds, wreck havoc in the grain fields, and strip a corncob of its kernels. Determined to protect their crops, farmers killed them in droves. It was no big deal. The pesky parakeets were plentiful. Some flocks even numbered in the thousands.
I was a beautiful bird.
Fashions changed. Hunters started tracking the birds for their colorful and highly profitable feathers. Forests were cut down to make room for new towns and villages. In the late 1800's the beautiful little parakeet started loosing ground. By the 1920's it was no more.
The Carolina Parakeet through the eyes of John James Audubon
Carolina Parakeet Audubon Print Framed & Matted
Amazon Price: $38.85 (as of 12/22/2009)
John James Audubon recognized beauty and transfered it to canvas. Audubon's art gives us a glimpse of the past, a past that is beyond our reach.
The Carolina Parakeet was the only parrot native to North America found north of Mexico. It inhabited the deciduous forests of the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf States. It could be found as far west as Nebraska and along the rivers crossing the Great Plains.
The Carolina Parakeet
The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird
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The Carolina Parakeet: America's Lost Parrot In Art And Memory
Amazon Price: $11.66 (as of 12/22/2009)
Remember Me
It was a medium size birds, approximately the size of the Common Grackle. It was mostly green. Its head was yellow and its cheeks orange. As with most parrots, its beak was thick and curved.
Peterson's Field guide to Birds of North America
Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)
Amazon Price: $16.38 (as of 12/22/2009)
Peterson's Field Guide to Birds is an absolute must have for anyone with a birdfeeder and an interest in watching the birds.
The farmer's wrath was one of many factors that lead to the demise of the Carolina Parakeet, but several other things factored in as well. Much like the woodpecker and the owl, the Carolina Parakeet were cavity nesters.
What actually caused the demise of the Carolina Parakeet is a mystery. The wrath of the farmers may have been a factor, as well as deforestation and loss of nesting sites. They were hunted for their beautiful feathers, but the decline was rapid. The aforementioned reasons would have lead to a gradual decline. The flocks noted in the late 1800's were healthy and reproducing.
The most likely cause of the bird's extinction appears to be disease. They were a gregarious bird. If one picked up a deadly disease, he would have passed it on. If this was the case, the fact that the Carolina Parakeet resided within the vicinity of human settlements proved to be its undoing.
Audubon's Masterpieces
Audubon's masterpieces: 150 prints from the Birds of America
Amazon Price: (as of 12/22/2009)
John James Audubon spent a lifetime documenting the behavior of, and drawing the birds of North America. Audubon's Masterpieces is a collection of 150 of his best works.
Birds Currently on the endangered list.
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The Brown Pelican
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The Brown Pelican is a large, stocky bird with a twelve inch bill and trademark throat pouch. Although it is considered a large bird, it is the smallest of the eight species of pelicans found in the world today. It is a coastal bird with two subspeci...
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Trumpeter Swans
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Similar in appearance to the Tundra Swan, listening to the Trumpeter Swan's call is usually the easiest way to identify it. It has a deep, resonant, trumpet-like voice whereas the voice of the Tundra Swan is soft and melodious.
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California Condor
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The California Condor was on the brink of extinction with its numbers dropping to less than 25. They are still endangered, but conservation efforts have paid off. Last count there were 356 California Condors in existence with 180 of them flying free....
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The Ivory-billed Woodpecker
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The Ivory-billed Woodpecker was once a common sight throughout the Southeastern United States. That is no longer the case. As with the Passenger Pigeon it was man's short-sightedness that brought them to the brink of extinction. Large tracts of...
Birder's Conservation Handbook
Birder's Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk
Amazon Price: $26.60 (as of 12/22/2009)
Well's Birder's Conservation Handbook details the status of 100 of North America's rarest birds. It also details what needs to be done, and what is being done.
Have we learned our lesson or are we still making the same mistakes?
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Reply
- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Dec 12, 2009 @ 5:35 am
- I never realized that there was a native parakeet here in North America. Here in Florida we have ferral populations of green parakeets. I love to hear them calling as they fly overhead. How sad that the Carolina parakeet no longer exists.
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Reply
- TylaMac TylaMac Nov 24, 2009 @ 12:18 am
- How sad it is that a whole species is gone forever and that people did it on purpose. Bird conservation is not really that difficult. We shouldn't let it happen again.
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Reply
- AndyPo AndyPo May 21, 2009 @ 9:54 am
- Excellent lens. I love parakeets. We have thousands of them in the parks of West London and they are spreading across the country (offspring of escapees). Despite being from India they love the mild climate here in southern England. When it cools down in the evening hundreds of them fly past my window to roost in my garden. They aren't quite as pretty as the Carolina Parakeet.
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Reply
- mukunda22 mukunda22 May 12, 2009 @ 6:44 pm
- I am so sorry. This is a tragedy.
A great lens to focus the problem and have a solution evolve from it.
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Reply
- dswain dswain Jan 30, 2009 @ 4:30 am
- Great tribute. Like Margo said, it's too bad they couldn't find a way to protect their crops without killing off the birds.
parakeet care
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About the Author
Lensmaster ElizabethJeanAllen has been a member since March 16 2008, has rated 4,016 lenses, favorited 445, and has created 200 lenses from scratch. Lizzy Jean donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund. This member's top-ranked page is "2009 Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments". See all my lenses
101 Ways to Help Birds
101 Ways to Help Birds
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/22/2009)
101 Ways to Help Birds offers 101 ways for individuals to help birds and bird populations as a whole, and it explains how these actions make a difference. Any bird lover knows that birds and animals alike need our help. Without it, we will lose more and we've lost enough as it is.
Resources used to construct this page.
Peterson, T.P. & Peterson, V.M. 2002. Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Fifth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, N.Y.
The Extinct Carolina Parakeet
The Carolina Parrot
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by ElizabethJeanAllen
I tell my students to Learn from the Past, Live in the Present, and Plan for the Future. With Squidoo I can do all three.
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