Not everything we do here at COTTonLINE is deadly serious, or alternatively snarky. Have some fun looking at a Texas Monthly article with photos about several sizable colonies of feral monk parakeets resident in that large, uncrowded state. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.
Natives of the pampas of Argentina, bright green monk parakeets were brought here as pretty pets but, as the article notes, wore out their welcome by being very LOUD. Disillusioned owners opened their cages and let them go, they found each other and multiplied and now there are likely thousands of these little beauties.
I haven't seen the monk parakeets of Texas but I remember seeing whole flocks of wild parrot-type birds with hot pink underwings in Australia. When a flock executes a sharp bank and turn in flight, there is an aerial flash of pink that is amazing.
Like parakeets, parrots tend to be seed eaters and spend quite a lot of time on the ground feeding, I remember looking out my motel window in Perth and seeing two on the ground under a nearby tree.
