Discovery House, the museum at Honey Horn Plantation, has a stuffed Carolina Parakeet.
They were much bigger than my parakeets. Budgies are a little over 1 oz. to 1.4 oz. Carolina Parakeets were 3.5 to 4 oz.
Carolina Parakeets used to live all over what early Spanish colonists called Carolana, the territory from the Atlantic Ocean to New Mexico. Carolina Parakeets were found from New York state to Central Florida and as far west as Wisconsin, even Colorado. They were prolific in the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.
When I was in Ft Lauderdale, I saw a flock of what looked like Carolina Parakeets. They were actually escaped Jenday Conures and Sun Conures. There are flocks of wild parakeets, parrots and conures in South Florida. Jenday Conures and Sun Conures, also called Jandaya Parakeets and Sun Parakeets, and Golden-capped Parakeets are the closest we still have to Carolina Parakeets.
Jenday Conures, Sun Conures and Golden-capped Parakeets are the closest birds we still have to Carolina Parakeets.*
When Europeans first came to this country, there were huge flocks of Carolina Parakeets living in wetlands and forests and along rivers. Much of their habitat was lost. Trees were cut and wetlands were drained. By the late 1800s they were rarely seen outside of Kentucky and North and Central Florida. The last wild bird was killed in Okeechobee County, Florida, in 1904. Cincinnati Zoo had the last pair. They died in 1917 and 1918.
Why are they extinct? A lot of reasons are suggested.
- Habitat Loss
Old growth forest were cleared in the 1700s and 1800s, but there were still old growth forests when they disappeared. - Hunting for Feathers
Their bright colorful feathers were used on women’s hats. - Killed as Vermin
Farmers believed they ate crop seeds. They slaughtered whole flocks. - Capture as Pets
This probably didn’t have much impact. - European Honeybees
Imported honeybees used the same nest sites, which were already declining, but the Carolina Parakeets were gone well before the trees were. - Poultry Disease
Poultry disease didn’t really begin to affect the United States until 1938.
The last flocks disappeared so rapidly there must be other factors. There were still huge flocks at the end of the 1800s and by 1904 they were nearly gone.
* Photos are from Wikimedia Commons.
Jandaya Parakeet at the Mayaquez Zoo, Puerto Rico by Dick Daniels
Sun Parakeets by Wayne Deeker
Golden-capped Parakeet at Jurong Bird Park, Singapore by Peter Tan
Carolina Parakeet exhibit at Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois by James St. John
