Red-crowned parrots are seen in the Rio Grande Valley and San Benito specifically. Yet their population is decreasing because of it’s popularity as a cage bird and habitat loss. I used to see more of the parrots on previous visits here and I’ll try to get some better photos.
It is sad when numbers decrease because of them becoming caged birds. Diane
Oh this sounds like West Africa where you could buy any kind of bird on the streets. Kept in those collapsed wire cages, the poor things. My heart bled and I even wrote to a Wildlife "police" association about it but they said they had no jurisdiction in Guinea. Safe travels Gaelyn. Blessing and hugs Jo
I have never seen them in the wild. Sorry to hear of their loss of habitate—when will humans learn??? MB
When we lived in the Rio Grande Valley in Pharr back in 2002 and 2003, we would see a huge flock of them from time to time.
I'd much rather see them in the wild than in a cage.
Isn't it sad that humans want to cage these birds. I wonder how humans would feel if parrots were collecting humans and putting THEM in cages.
Are they native to that area or escapees? If they are native, how sad this story is. Glad you got to see them either way.
I didn't know we had any native parrots in the US! What a shame that their numbers are decreasing.
I'm fairly certain those are Cherry Headed Conures. They're not native to the US. Our last member of the parrot family was the Carolina parakeet, extinct in 1902.
Nice blog!
There may be some Cherry Headed Conures in the Rio Grand Vally and they would NOT be native.
But alas, the Red-crowned Amazon is a native parrot in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It may be either feral, descendants of natural vagrants from Mexico, or both.
Their numbers are declining but they are not yet extinct.