While there are populations of escaped parrots and parakeets that are found in various locations around the U.S., wild populations of native species are only found in very southern locations. I found these Green Parakeets yesterday in McAllen, TX . Populations of Green Parakeets are also found in Florida and California. The Green Parakeet found in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is thought to “occur naturally in South Texas” according to the Texas Breeding Bird Atlas.
I think these colorful parakeets are handsome birds, all decked out in green and yellowish green feathers. And quite gregarious in that they are usually found in flocks.
While they like to associate with others of their kind they are rather fussy, getting into disputes with others. And do they have raucous calls! This is especially true when there are close to 500 Green Parakeets like I found, what a racket they made. Just play the short video clip below to hear their calls and see their numbers all along several levels of utility lines.
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Living in the midwest, Illinois to be exact, I am suprised that there is a green parakeet living out in the cold hanging out with a group of house sparrows. I see it at my feeders almost every day. I looked it up and it is actually a Budgerigar. It has been around for several months now.
I live in Austin, and last evening while I was on a walk around the neighborhood I saw three of these green parrots in someone’s yard. I was surprised because I didn’t realize wild parrots lived around here (I moved here two years ago from Indiana), but there they were! They looked exactly like the pictures on this website and appeared to be picking and eating blades of grass out of someone’s yard. I looked around for a flock but there seemed to only be three. What a treat to see them!