Having Mixed Feelings About Capturing Budgie

[Ursula]

As nice as it sounds to give the bird its freedom, sadly events like this one are the reason that the government has to take action and come out with stricter laws for exotic pets. I don't blame you that he got away, and that happens, and I think it's great that you at least think about catching him. But unfortunately the more exotic pets people keep the more pets get accidentally and voluntarily released into the wild, and the result is an imbalance of the natural habitats for the native species. And for that reason governments must restrict pet ownerships. However, the same pet owners who want all birds to be free complain that they can't legally keep certain species anymore. Just because one little parakeet doesn't do any harm doesn't mean that a whole flock of them couldn't do serious damage and diminish some local species. It doesn't matter whether the animal is a predator or not.

And, by the way: I fully agree with Donna's suggestion of catching him and building a big aviary for him, where he can live happily with a bunch of other budgies.

Lastly: I also agree that free birds should not be caught which is one reason why I also agree not only with stricter pet laws but also restriction on imports of birds that get caught in their native countries. We have enough exotic pet species to keep, I don't think there is any reason to catch birds in the wild just to put them in cages, not even talking about the high percentage of them dying during transport...

Sorry for venting....

[30 Seconds to Bob]

For whatever reason, breeding colonies (of budgies at least) don't seem to establish themselves around here. There have been several known such colonies in the past. They just don't make it. Bob

[cindy]

They may do well further south in Florida, here the weather gets to damp and cold during the fall and winter months.

[paul-inAZ]

There are flocks of peach faced lovebirds here in the greater Phoenix area. Rumor has it that the first flock came from a breeder who couldn't sell his birds and so released them.

That seems to be the only formerly pet species that has established itself in any numbers in our urbanized desert. They don't seem to have any predators interested in them or able to catch them.

According to Fish and Game the only threat or damage from these is to compete with other cavity nesters for nest sites.

As a trivia aside, I once heard that the word budgerigar is derived from the aboriginal word(s) meaning 'good eating'.