Extirpation of the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) from Florida
Abstract
Native to Australia, Budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) have been extremely popular cagebirds for more than 150 years. Beginning in the 1950s, large numbers reportedly were released in Pinellas County, along Florida’s central Gulf coast. By the late 1970s, a large and thriving population, containing perhaps 20,000 or more individuals, was breeding abundantly in western Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Sarasota counties. This population, which subsequently spread to Hernando County, began a severe decline in the 1980s, with fewer than 100 individuals remaining by the mid-1990s. The final remnant flocks survived for an additional ~20 years in Hernando and Pasco counties before becoming extirpated in 2014. In an earlier paper (Pranty 2001), I summarized the history of Budgerigars in Florida through January 2001. Here, I document their continued decline through the disappearance of the last individuals, and I provide thoughts on the likely causes of their extirpation. As the Budgerigars in west-central Florida represented the only large, breeding population found outside their native range, their extirpation represents the loss of a regularly-occurring species in the Western Hemisphere. The history of Budgerigars in Florida proves well that even large and robust populations of exotic birds can disappear decades after their founding.
