MYSTERY PARROTS OF THE WORLD

This is an article that Richard and I wrote some years ago for a magazine which then proceeded to go spectacularly bust. As far as I know it was never published, or if it was, I don't think more than a handful of copies of the magazine escaped the warehouse before the rest were pulped. The CFZ Coalition is about responsible pet keeping as well as everything else we do, and we feel that the keeping of exotic pets - IF DONE PROPERLY AND RESPONSIBLY - can be a very positive and ethical thing, so this article pushes several different buttons. Not bad for something we wrote seven years ago and then forgot about!

Mystery parrots of the world

by Jonathan Downes and Richard Freeman

Cryptozoology is the study of unknown animals. This term was first coined by Professor Bernard Heuvelmans - a Belgian zoologist - in the 1950s. Although it may seem surprising to some that there are still unknown animals waiting to be discovered at the very beginning of the 21st century, this is in fact a case. We are two of the only professional cryptozoologists in the world, and for over a decade now we have been running an organisation called the Centre for Fortean Zoology which is the world's largest mystery animal research group.

If you say the words ` mystery animal` to most people they will either gaze at you blankly, or mention one of these three creatures - the yeti, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness monster. Whilst it is beyond argument that these are the most famous mystery animals in the world ( if that is not a complete oxymoron), there are many others. Every continent on earth has its animal mysteries, and is our job to try and solve as many as we can.

That's all very well, I hear you say. All very interesting, but what has all this that to do with parrots? In this article we will take you on a journey to some of the world's more far flung places, introduce you to some of the mystery parrots in the world, and endeavour to solve some of the parrot world's most enduring mysteries.

THE CAROLINA PARAKEET

This was the only species of parrot native to North America. The Carolina parakeet was a member of the conure family. They appeared somewhat similar to the Jenday conure. Their bodies were bright green, with a yellow head splashed with brilliant orange. From head to tail, they were about twelve inches long. Their beaks were sharp and quite strong for their size, apparently for opening tough- shelled seeds such as the cocklebur. Their eggs were light greenish white in color. Many females laid their eggs together, with each laying two or three. Parakeets would occasionally breed in captivity, but seldom with much success.

They lived in enormous flocks across much of the United States east of the Ohio River. In his 1969 study of the decline and extinction of this remarkable bird, George Laycock wrote: "As we tracked the vanished bird it seemed unreal that the parakeets had once flown in colorful flocks along the nearby Ohio river. Where a traveler saw one parakeet, he was likely to see a flock of a dozen or more. If disturbed in their feeding, they flashed into the sky as if all were triggered by the same instantaneous force."

Sadly for the species, they soon found that the crops of the farms of the European settlers provided much tastier pickings than the native plants, and they soon began to be regarded as a pest. However, they were pest without any great instinct for self-preservation. A farmer only had to shoot one individual for the rest of the enormous flock to fly around aimlessly, as if in grief. In that way they were easily picked off by farm labourers with shot guns. These birds were also collected for their colorful feathers and because the young birds were considered good to eat. It is speculated that habitat destruction may have also contributed to their decline. By the 1890's, the parakeets were quite uncommon, and collectors eagerly caught the few remaining birds to sell them to zoos. The last known pair of parakeets were called "Incas" and "Lady Jane." They lived in the Cincinnati Zoo for some 35 years. In the late summer of 1917, Lady Jane passed away, leaving her mate listless and mournful. Alone, and the last of his kind, Incas quietly "died of grief" on February 21, 1918.

However, rumors of their continued existence have surfaced intermittently ever since. In 1926, Charles E Doe saw several pairs at Grapevine Hammock, Okeechobee, Florida, and stole some of their eggs. The National Audubon Birds Society wardens for the Santee Swamp area of South Carolina reported the species on several occasions in the 1930s, andsightings of animals which appeared to be the species were made regularly up until the beginning of the second world war. Sadly, even if the Carolina parakeet had survived in small numbers in the Santee Swamp, they were doomed for extinction because the Swamp was destroyed in the late 1930s to make way for a hydro-electric power plant. However, there are still swamps in that part of the country which are very little known and it is not impossible that this beautiful birds still lingers on in small numbers.

However - like an equally iconic bird; the passenger pigeon - its very habits when alive do tend to suggest that its continual survival is unlikely. Both birds lived in huge flocks, and whilst the social and behavioural mechanisms of both species remain obscure, we know from studies of other birds who live in large social groups, that they are unlikely to be able to adapt to living in isolation. Sadly, it looks probable that the Carolina parakeet is lost forever.

THE AUSTRALIAN NIGHT PARROT

The Night Parrot Pezoporus occidentalis is one of Australia's most intriguing birds and possibly its least known. It lives in remote parts of the continent, comes out at night and runs along the ground like a quail.

The Night Parrot is a medium sized bird, about 23 cm long. It is mottled yellowish-green and dark brown over most of the body, with the lower belly and under tail coverts yellow. There is a pale yellow stripe through the middle of the wing. This species closely resembles the Ground Parrot Pezoporus wallicus of coast southeastern and southwestern mainland and Tasmania. It differs by lacking the orange band on the forehead across the base of the upper mandible, a noticeably shorter tail, and shorter, straighter claws on the toes.

The first known specimen of the Night Parrot was collected by John Mcdouall Stuart in October 1845, north of Coopers Creek, far northern South Australia, as part of an expedition led by Charles Sturt. The Night Parrot was not formally named until 1861, when John Gould described it as Geopsittacus occidentalis, based on a bird collected in 1854 near Mount Farmer, Western Australia. Until the 1870s, sightings appeared to be very occasional. They became rarer from the mid 1880s, stopping almost completely by 1900. In 1990, a dead specimen was found at the side of a road in southwestern Queensland. Seven separate sightings were made in 1992 and 1993 a short distance north of where the specimen was found, but since then the species seems to have disappeared again.

The exact status of this bizarre little bird - who is surprisingly closely related to the budgerigar - is unknown. Over the last few decades it has been described as common, threatened, extinct, and some people have even suggested that the species per se doesn't actually exist at all. Whatever your viewpoint, it is undeniable that the Australian night parrot is a genuine enigma, and furthermore one which deserves some serious scientific study.

ON SATURDAY 17 September 2006, Robert ‘Shorty’ Cupitt, the ranger-on-duty of Diamantina National Park in south-west Queensland, was grading an interior road of the reserve when the blade of his vehicle exposed the yellow underbelly of a bird he didn’t recognise. As it eventually transpired, it was a deceased Night Parrot— only the second specimen to be found in nearly 100 years.

THE JAMAICAN RED PARROT

Another fascinating parrot mystery comes from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. In 1996 bird expert Errol Fuller found a painting at a London antiques fair. He immediately recognised it as being by George Edwards (1694-1773), a well-known painter of birds. It particularly interested him because not only was it an unknown painting by Edwards, but it also appear to show an unknown species of bird. The painting was accompanied by an inscription and a letter (written on the reverse of the painting).

These identified the subject of the painting as a bird lent to the painter by Alexander Russell. It had been shot in Jamaica, dried and brought over to England where Edward painted it in 1764. He said that the people of Jamaica had never actually recollected seeing a bird of this type before and speculated that it must have been very rare. So rare in fact that this is the only sighting on record. It appears to be very similar to an Amazon parrot, but the striking red plumage doesn't correspond with any other species known. It has been suggested by Dr Karl Shuker - a British cryptozoologist - that this is an erytheristic colour morph of a known species, or even more excitingly and a specimen of a species which we must now presumed be extinct.

The current whereabouts of the original stuffed specimen is unknown, and we do not know whether it has survived into the 21st century.

THE GLAUCOUS MACAW

The Hyacinth Macaw (Andorhynchus hyacinthinus) is well known because of its beautiful blue color and its status as the largest parrot in the world. Closely related is the highly endangered Lear's Macaw (Andorhynchus leari). However, there was once a third member of this genus, the Glaucus Macaw (Andorhynchus glaucus). At the end of the 18th century explorers reported seeing this large turquoise blue macaw as they traveled the Uruguay River in south-central South America, but it is generally believed that this, the third large species of blue macaw was becoming scarce by the end of the 18th century as their main food plant - the chatay palm - slowly disappeared. The species was generally believed to have become extinct at the beginning of the 20th century, but in nearly every decade since its supposed extinction a few sightings trickled in to perplex the ornithological establishment. In 1992 one of a pair of Lear's Macaws was identified as a female Glaucus Macaw by a number of parrot experts. Other experts, however disagreed and dismissed the episode as an unfortunate bout of wishful thinking by self-styled experts who really should have known better.

However, there is hope for this beautiful species. As recently as 1978 a closely related species - The Spix's Macaw - was rediscovered in the wild after being thought extinct for the best part of a century.

THE INDIGO WINGED PARROT AND THE BALD PARROT

More hope for those who believe that The Glaucus Macaw and other supposedly extinct species may yet be rediscovered came in July 2002, when the Associated Press announced an exciting rediscovery. After a gap of ninety years the Indigo Winged Parrot has been rediscovered near the summit of the highest volcano in Colombia. An expedition from Bogota University found the flock of 14 indigo-winged parrots in the Andes. The bird has only been sighted once before, near the peak of the same volcano in 1911. The Times says seven of the birds were captured and their remains are on display in America but notes of their breeding habits were not taken. The team from Bogota University are now taking notes, photographs and video footage of the birds to help develop a conservation plan for the species and its habitat.


Dr Robert Prys-Jones, head of birds at the Natural History Museum in London, advised the team. He said: "This is remarkable. They have found perhaps the last flock of surviving indigo-winged parrots, making it one of the greatest wildlife discoveries to date. We were concerned that this spectacular parrot was lost for ever."

The same year perhaps the strangest ever species of parrot was discovered. To the astonishment of ornithologists it is bald. The discovery of the Bald parrot, or Pagagio careco, as it is known, since its home is in the Portuguese speaking Mato Grosso region of Brazil, has sent a flurry of excitement around the bird world. So far only one has been seen, but it has been photographed for a Brazilian bird magazine, and filmed by the local television network. It is so distinctive because of the lack of feathers on its head that experts have no doubt it is a previously unknown parrot.

In the same way that a vulture which ate carrion had developed baldness to keep its head from getting too messy. The hunt is now on for more members of the same species.

THE WOODBURY MACAWS

But one does not have to travel to the ends of the earth to search for mystery parrots. has confirmed that there is now a population of several thousand wild ring necked parakeets – a denizen of tropical Africa – living in and about London. A flock estimated at about 850 are living near Heathrow Airport, and smaller numbers of two other tropical species – Alexandrine and Monk parakeets – are also living in the south of England albeit in smaller numbers.

Indeed the African ring necked parakeet has now been reported from most counties in England and Wales and has even been described by irate Kentish fruit farmers as a pest on a par with the native bullfinch because of its fondness not only for fruit but for the flower buds of fruit trees.

Apart from the vociferous fruit farming lobby, most people seem quite happy to have these beautiful additions to the British avifauna. Indeed, thirty years ago, one member of the parrot family – the ubiquitous Budgerigar even got the seal of Royal Approval when the Queen Mother, no less, suggested to the Lord Lieutenant of the Scilly Isles that he introduce a flock of free flying budgies to the estates on the island of Tresco. Four pairs from the royal aviaries at Windsor Park were introduced to a specially built aviary and within six years there were over a hundred of these charming Australian grass parakeets living wild in the Scilly Islands. Although there was no evidence that they ever bred away from Tresco, they were seen on many of the neighbouring islands foraging for food.

For several years a pair of cockatiels, another Australiasian species kept commonly as a pet lived quite successfully in Powderham woods in south Devon, and during the winter of 1998, an example of an even more exotic species – the black headed parrot from South America – was reported at a bird sanctuary at Dawlish Warren (another site only a few miles from my front doorstep).

The British List – the bible for all UK ornithologists – records another thirteen species of parrot as escapees that have lived wild for a time in the UK, and whilst it is certain that most of these birds reached an unfortunate end, either because of the rigours of the British climate, or more prosaically because only single specimens escaped and so were not able to establish breeding colonies, it also seems likely that when you factor in the burgeoning trade in exotic pets and the advent of global warming, that more of these beautiful birds may yet become established here.

The quest for unknown parrots is a rewarding one, and we would be the first to admit that we have only just scratched the surface in this article. There are several more species thought to be extinct which may well have survived, other species - even macaws - rumoured to be living wild in the British countryside, and no doubt there are more totally unknown species awaiting discovery. So whether on holiday in an exotic location, or even wandering around British woodlands, the keen parrot fancier with a fancy for the cryptozoological could do worse than follow the advice given on a well known TV science fiction series. Keep watching the skies..you never know what you will see!