Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the November 21, 2004 Newsletter issued from Hacienda Komchen de Los Pájaros just outside Dzemul, Yucatán, MÉXICO
PARAKEETS THROUGHOUT THE DAY
It's hard to say what you might find most exotic about Komchen, but a good bet is that you'd be thrilled with the big flocks of parakeets that fly over at all hours of the day. They are Olive-throated Parakeets, ARATINGA NANA, once known as Aztec Parakeets. The species is distinguished from others by its olive-brown throat and chest. You can see a small picture of one at www.camacdonald.com/birding/Olive-throatedParakeet(EF).jpg.

Flocks of these birds announce themselves with their noisy, shrieking chatter as up to 30 individuals or more approach flying low over the thornforest. This species likes disturbed habitats such as forest edges, plantations and cornfields, so our hurricane-ravaged thornforest and cluster of buildings is just right for them.

A tight, fast-moving little flock dive-bombs into a tree a bit higher than the rest, suddenly the birds' screeching stops, they sit still like statues, looking around, and then slowly they begin moving. Before long they make a circus of twig-climbing and, more than anything, preening and interacting with one another.

If you ever see how social, how dependent a parakeet or parrot is on its fellow birds in the wild, what enormous pleasure they obviously find just being with their own kind, you'll always feel a bit guilty keeping a solitary bird in a cage.