I made this journal post a while ago, I just want to bring awareness to this, as many people don’t know about these populations:
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This is an interesting write-up, a number of species I thought were countable (Rose-ringed Parakeet, Red-masked Parakeet) are in fact not. ABA listing rule shenanigans, I suppose. Thanks for integrating and synthesizing the historical information, I enjoyed that about this.
Just FYI, there is no established population of Black Swans in Florida. This is a commonly believed misconception that has unfortunately been perpetuated by a lot of sloppy review work on eBird. The alleged “wild” population of Black Swans in Lakeland consists entirely of pinioned birds. They are not wild in any meaningful sense of the word, as they can no longer fly. But since they’re not physically in a cage, most birders haven’t noticed.
Interestingly, Lakeland also maintains a pinioned population of Graylag Geese at the same lake, but for whatever reason nobody has ever tried to interpret them as wild birds. Guess they’re just not as interesting ;-)
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On the other hand, a few species you can add to your list…
Crimson-fronted Parakeet, Scarlet-fronted Parakeet, and Scaly-headed Parrot have all been documented breeding in Miami-Dade County (Florida) in recent years, per the most recent state BBA. How long they’ll last is anyone’s guess. (The Scaly-heads might already be gone.) But they have bred, which qualifies them as “established” by some authorities.
Thanks! I had been wondering if this was the case for a while now (after I wrote this) but it is difficult to tell.
I am aware of all of these but none of them really seemed to be established. We’ll see if they stick around, but I doubt it. I only included populations that seemed like they could last for a long time into the future.
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