BIRD LOVERS: look what was outside the office window today, making...

[Gato Moteado]

...all kinds of racket. actually, they're there every day.

They are crimson-fronted parakeets (Aratinga finschi) and they are thick in my neighborhood.

[derby378]

1. DUDE!

Where do you work? Me and ginbarn may need to plan a roadtrip.

[mike_c]

3. check the profile....

Costa Rica.

[XemaSab]

6. check PM's

n/t

[Gato Moteado]

8. i'm south of the border

way south.

[Straight Shooter]

2. I am soooooooo jealous. GREEN with envy.

I have some great birds here, though :)

[Gato Moteado]

9. ah, those are common......

....i have green macaws on my property. rarest bird in costa rica.

[MuseRider]

4. Amazing!

Lovely birds. You are full of great nature shots!

We need to plan a DU trip to Costa Rica for the wildlife.

[Gato Moteado]

10. come on down

let's have a DU gathering here. it's just me and arcos living down here as far as i know.

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. Another great photo...

Rain has come to Chicago tonight. A long steady straight-down fall for several hours. Felt wonderful. It's also cooled down.

Cubs game delayed by 3 hours....recently underway.

Thought you'd appreciate an update for your hometown in exchange for the great photos from your new home.

[Gato Moteado]

7. ah.....i always appreciate updates from back home

how the heck are ya? and when are ya coming to visit?

[blondeatlast]

11. I can't even imagine seeing those in your environs. Awesome

and beautiful.

I'm absolutely fanatical about birds, so I love seeing these!

Thanks for the beautiful photos.

[neweurope]

25. That caricature is great! n/t

------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Floogeldy]

12. They are beautiful creatures.

:)

[barb162]

13. I thought the first photo was a stuffed animal

they are beautiful

[BikeWriter]

14. I think those are related to Cherry Head Conures. All great birds! :-)

[Gato Moteado]

16. yes, same genus as the cherry headed conure

but i think they are found further south.

[BikeWriter]

19. When I had exotics here I especially watched for any of those.

[Ladyhawk]

22. Cherry heads don't have the flecks of red on the neck, usually.

Mitred and Finsch's conures do. Wagler's are much bigger. White eyes don't have the dark red front, but do have flecks of red on the head and neck. There are probably other species that are closely related, but I can't think of them right now. They're all beautiful birds.

All of the Aratinga conures tend to be rather noisy. :D

Interestingly enough, the conures are very closely related to macaws. The second smallest macaw, the noble macaw, and the blue-crowned conure are very similar in appearance. Macaws always have bare patches of skin on their faces.

Blue-crowned conure:



Noble macaw:



(Only the very similar Hahn's macaw is smaller.)

[Gloria]

15. Wonderful!!!

eom

[Ladyhawk]

17. Aratinga conures are noisy. :)

Finsch's conures (crimson-fronted parakeets) are related to mitred conures, Wagler's, cherry heads, white eyes, etc.

Conures are--simply--New World parakeets. :) Unfortunately, Americans destroyed both species of parrots living within our borders. The Carolina parakeet (related to sun and jenday conures) is now extinct. The thick-billed parrot was extirpated from the pine forests in Arizona.

[Gato Moteado]

18. yes, conures are noisy.....

...and you should hear it when there's a flock of them outside your window.

apparently the thick billed parrot has been moving back into arizona from mexico for some time now. i don't know if that's really true or not.

yeah i would have loved to have seen a carolina parakeet. what a shame.

believe it or not, there are breeding flocks of quaker parrots in several major cities in the US. they're from argentina and they're quite hardy...hardy enough to survive chicago winters. i used to see a flock of them in lincoln park fairly frequently. there are several big flocks of them in austin texas as well...i used to get them in my backyard there.

[Ladyhawk]

21. There have been efforts to reintroduce thick-bills back into Arizona,

so there are some there. Unfortunately, captive-raised youngsters don't have the necessary skills to survive, but wild-caught birds do much better. It would be best if they moved naturally back into their old habitat, wouldn't it? Thick bills are in their own family, but to me they look like an intermediate between macaws and conures. :)

I'm rather pissed off that our ancestors killed off the very beautiful Carolina parakeet. A very old man once told me he remembers passenger pigeons. He said they were very noisy and so numerous they filled up the sky. He also said he vividly remembers the sinking of the Titanic. It was an interesting conversation.

BTW, where do you live that you get noisy flocks of conures outside your window? :)

And yes, I know about the Quaker parakeets. They're the only parrot that builds nests of twigs...and what nests! They are veritable apartments housing numerous pairs and weighing hundreds of pounds! I remember that one of the huge nests blew down in Chicago several years back. The babies were rescued for hand-feeding.

Quaker (or monk) parakeets are illegal to own in California. If too many got loose, they could decimate the agricultural trade.

On edit: OH, Costa Rica!!!

I bet you see macaws, too...maybe not in the city. :) I would love to visit Costa Rica and Brazil to see the parrots. They're all so lovely.

[uppityperson]

20. I had 3 baby pine siskins trapped under my clear porch roof.

Nice parakeets. I had 3 of these babies to rescue. Not as colorful as your birds, but pretty brown with yellow bits and about 2 inches long, fluttering around unable to actually fly.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

23. Dang lucky I say

They are beautiful and probably worth more than a penny. I have an African Grey and just love birds. She heard the birds outside and got excited, she yelled Hey. Poor thing, she thinks she's human.

I started taking her out and said, "Do you hear the pretty birds?". She has learned like 5 different bird calls since. I hope she knows she is a bird now.

I read alot in Bird Talk about Costa Rica. It seems that you have a conglomeration of birds form the world. The jungels offer so much.

I also heard about the beef worm? There was not much on google awhile back, but it sounded gross. I was planning a trip to CR about 10 yrs. ago, but got Lyme disease. Is it as wonderful as I have been led to believe.

[I Know How To Do it]

24. I like them. Thanks for the pictures. Beauty can be found anywhere.

[GOPisEvil]

26. Dude! Nice pictures.

It truly is a different world down there.

[seemunkee]

27. My wife is going to love this trip

She is a a bird lover.

[Theres-a]

28. Thanks for posting!