Suddenly, a loud chattering, a mystery at first, but then I saw a flock of birds fly towards my neighbour's coconut tree and settle on the swaying fronds in the rain.
I first became aware of their presence a couple of months ago, when I heard their squawking in my neighbour's golden apple tree. It was hard to make them out then, for the leaves and the apples were bright green.
From then on, I tried desperately for quite some time to take some photos of these gregarious birds. Somehow, they always knew when I went in search of my camera, and would disappear by the time I was ready.
Yesterday, they granted me my wish and decided to chill out for a while.
Rose-ringed Parakeets - Psittacula krameri
The Rose-ringed Parakeet is a 16 inch parakeet with greenish yellow plumage and a long pointed tail.
A few pairs were released in the Bridgetown area back in the 80's.
They are sexually dimorphic.
With large populations on the island, they travel in large groups.
Their diet consist of fruits, vegetables, berries , nuts and seeds.......maybe that's why they hang out in my neighbour's golden apple tree for long periods of time.
They seemed quite happy sitting on the utility wires enjoying the rain.
Time for us to bounce.....she's taken enough photos....she should be happy now.
You may read more here.
This post was originally released under the title "Green-rumped parrotlet." I somehow knew that I had misidentified these birds.
Requesting the kind help for their true identification from a local bird specialist here on the island, I was informed that the Green-rumped parrotlet has not been seen in Barbados since the early 1960s and are considered extirpated.
The birds above are indeed Rose-ringed Parakeets.....thanks John!!!
Cute colourful bird :) Reminds me of the green parrot a friend of mine used to have - that one was bigger, though. We don't have them in the wild in our climate, of course.
ReplyDeleteI'm now seeing them in my area for the first time......they are beautiful birds.
ReplyDeleteSo cute!! If I ever saw those here, I would know someone's pet had escaped. :o)
ReplyDeleteSo what are we dealing with here....escapees?? If so they must have escaped ages ago, they're now wild birds.
DeleteThe pet shops do sell them though.
They look very like a parrot that we have in NZ and I've seen in Western Australia. They are fearless birds.
ReplyDeleteFearless indeed...even Brownie barking at them did not phase them to fly away.
DeleteI enjoy all your bird photos GB, maybe we can compare them when you get to NZ.
The only difference might be the ones here may have a Bajan twitter.
I love to see birds that are often caged out in the wild. Are they noisy? I always get a thrill when I see wild sulpher crested cockatoo or lorikeets
ReplyDeleteThey're pretty noisy when they descend as a large flock....just one or two twittering away is quite a pleasant sound.
DeleteYour birds are very beautiful, and I love when you post photos.
I don't know why some birds are so camera-shy. If I was that beautiful I'd be posing everytime I saw a camera. I'm glad they let you take their photo for a little while at least.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they finally gave me the opportunity to take their photo...it's been a long time that I've been on stakeout duties trying to capture them on film.
DeleteThey are beautiful...aren't they?