Posted: Monday, March 7, 2016 4:30
pm
Bryan Stevens For the Birds Bristol
Monk parakeets have habit of showing up
in unexpected places
What do birders miss when they look back
on some of the avian potential lost before Americans became more protective of
their wildlife? Obviously, we lament the loss of birds like the ivory-billed
woodpecker or the great auk. Losses of bird life in the Hawaiian
islands have been staggering. We also lost tiny birds — dusky
seaside sparrow and Bachman's warbler — that would have gone unnoticed by most
people.
I'm confident we mourn the loss of some
of the most abundant birds to ever roam the continent. One such bird was the
now-extinct Carolina North America
was once home to its own species of parakeet. A few individuals — all that
remained of once massive flocks of colorful, noisy native parakeets — made it
into the 20th century. The last specimen died in the Cincinnati Zoo on Feb. 21,
1918. Although not declared officially extinct until 1939, the population of
the Carolina
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