Do Wild Parakeets and Parrots Live in North America?

Types of Wild Parakeets and Parrots in the U.S.

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Monk parakeets, red-crowned Amazon parrots and Nanday parakeets are the three most common wild parakeets and parrots in the U.S. None of these is a native North American bird species. Over the years, however, their populations adapted to survive in many cities. Pigeons did a similar thing by learning how to survive in urban environments.

In most cases, these wild parakeet and parrot populations likely started as a result of escaped birds meant for the pet trade.

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Where Do Wild Parakeets and Parrots Live?

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Most of the 25 types of wild parrots that have bred in the United States live in California, Florida and Texas. Red-crowned Amazons only have a population in southern Texas.

Courtesy Caeli Cunningham

Wild Nanday parakeets live generally in the Southwest and Florida. You can find parrots farther north, too. Keep an eye out for wild monk parakeets in many major U.S. cities such as Chicago, New York, and Portland, Oregon.

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Wild Parrot Sightings by the Numbers

Courtesy Maria Retzlaff

The monk parakeet is the most common wild parrot that makes its home in the northern U.S. Through the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count and Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird, 42,981 sightings were logged between 2002 and 2016.

Birders with eBird and Christmas Bird Count have spotted wild parakeets and parrots in 43 states in recent years, usually in parklands or suburban habitats. These birds mostly live in populated areas.

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Are There Any Native Wild Parrots in North America?

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Sadly, you won’t find North America’s only two native parrots in the U.S today. The Carolina parakeet went extinct in the 1920s. The thick-billed parrot no longer visits the Southwest, but still resides in Mexico. In recent years, 56 nonnative parrot species were reported in the wild in the States.

Sources

• John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove: The Last Carolina Parakeet
• National Geographic
• National Park Service – Chiricahua National Monument, Thick-Billed Parrot
• WildEarth Guardians – Thick-Billed Parrot
• Sierra: Non-native Parrots Have Naturalized Across the United States
• Springer Nature, Journal of Ornithology: Status of Naturalized Parrots in the United States
• National Audubon Society
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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