Hawaii

[Greenie]

We have some Indian ring-necked parakeets visiting our bird feeder near Manoa stream in Manoa Valley on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. They come twice per day. It is a lot of fun to watch them. We love these birds, one of whom we named "Greenie". This is a nice forum, and should be useful for us. Thank you.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi and welcome

Thanks for sharing. As people who share their homes with IRNs, we are always interested to hear information about how IRNs behave in the wild, so we look forward to hearing more from you.

It seems they can be found in the wild in many places in the world. I can't imagine they are native to Hawaii though? Are they pests where you are? I'm yet to see one in the wild in Australia... and I kinda hope I never do. We have lots of amazing, endangered birds here so introducing breeds that don't belong could spell disaster for them.

Ellie.

[Greenie]

Ellie, regarding the behavior of the ring-necked parakeets in the wild, here are my observations:

These parakeets are not native to Hawaii. They were introduced as part of an exhibit at a nature park in the Manoa Valley about 30 or more years ago, I believe. Eventually, they were released when the park went out of business in the 1990s. Since then, they have lived in the valley and have become naturalized. I do not know how many live here, but I have seen 4 parakeets together at one time.

They come to our bird feeder twice daily - in the morning and the evening. In the morning, the male will come and make a soft sound and wait for my wife to come outside and feed him by placing sunflower seeds mixed with parrot food and wild bird food into the bird feeder. He will fly up into the branches while she is filling the feeder, and then descend about one minute later to feed after my wife comes back inside. In the evening, the birds will make much louder sounds -- they do not "speak", as they have not been trained -- it is a squawking noise. They feed for up to about 5 minutes, usually.

They seem to be disturbed by children who make noise and run around, and they seem to not like our neighbors very much. They are amazing flyers -- can ascend vertically with great ease and rapidity, going up very high and very quickly. They move through the valley at very high altitudes, generally, making the squawking noise.

They do not seem to fight, but when the Java sparrows bother them they will defend their space on the bird feeder. They seem to be comfortable with my wife and I, who feed them.

I have seen them feeding on the fruits/seeds of the African tulip tree -- they seem to love it.

The male and female who come to our feeder have different feeding habits. The male mounts the feeder in an upright position, sitting, whereas the female hangs from the feeder, beneath it, while feeding.

They are very charming and friendly birds, and we love to feed them. They have been coming to our place since October, 2011.

You may search youtube for our brief videos of the male at our feeder (use search words Greenie ringnecked parakeet).

Take care,
Scot

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Scot

Thanks for sharing. Greenie is a beautiful bird!

Here is the youtube link for those who want to check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnDkDfEFk7k

I have never heard of an African Tulip before. I will have to check it out.

Do you ever see evidence of nesting or baby birds?

Thanks again.

Ellie.

[Greenie]

Hi Ellie,

Thank you for posting the link to our video.

We do not know where "our" wild ringnecked parakeets nest.

We saw a somewhat smaller Indian ringnecked parakeet here with Greenie, but I don't know if it was juvenile.

The female may have been nesting recently, as she did not come as often to our feeder and was missing for 2-3 weeks. She did feed this morning.

Scot

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks Scot. What you have shared is really fascinating. I look forward to hearing more!

I'm presuming you only see green IRNs in the wild? I have a feeling other coloured variants might stand out too much and become prey?

Ellie.

[happybird]

Thanks for sharing scott

[Greenie]

Hi Ellie,

There are other wild or naturalized parrots in Hawaii, having escaped captivity or having been released. I have seen various species and colors such as red and white. I have only seen the green IRNs near our bird feeder. The rats are probably the most damaging predators of birds in Hawaii, although cats and mongoose stalk birds here as well, but do most of their damage at ground level. The roof rats are expert scalers and can eat chicks and eggs in trees, and have caused the extinction of some endemic Hawaiian bird species. We have no snakes yet in Hawaii, at least that is the official word. But eventually, species of tree snakes may become established and then all birds will be at great risk here. In my opinion, bird color is not much of a factor in their loss to predation here, but of course I'm no expert (but my understanding is that most of the bird predation occurs at the egg or young juvenile stage in Hawaii). However, Greenie is extremely difficult to spot when he is within tree foliage, as he is so well camouflaged -- he looks just like the leaves.

happybird - thank you for your greeting!

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks Greenie. Fantastic information!

Ellie.

[Greenie]

We had 3 green ring necked parakeets, males, come to bird our feeder this morning simultaneously. They differ in size. There is dominance, as one of them chases the other two from the feeder. They all love the raw peanuts in the shell. They will grab a peanut and either fly away with it or move up to a branch and start eating it. Sometimes they will use one claw at beak level to hold the peanut while shelling it. These wild birds are becoming friendlier or at least less afraid of us and at times seem to enjoy or crave attention from us -- they want to be noticed. They will sit a few meters from our window and "skwawk!" until we feed them. The female(s) rarely comes to the feeder these days.

[Greenie]

Today a female IRN came to our feeder and, in succession, devoured all four of the roasted peanuts in shells that I had placed there. She was hungry! Later, a male showed up and, seeing no peanuts, began to "skwawk!" loudly. My wife went out and placed a peanut on top of the fence and he came down to eat it...and we heard no more skwawking. So, we have at least four, wild IRNs visiting our feeder. They more commonly appear in the morning.

[ellieelectrons]

Thanks for the updates. I'm loving this thread! Sounds like these birds have you wrapped around their little claw!

Ellie.

[Greenie]

I am trying to show them who is the boss around here, Ellie!

I do that by feeding them whenever they fuss.

In that way, they know I'm not the boss.

Scot

[ellieelectrons]

lol - sounds like my house!

Ellie.

[Greenie]

The bird word is out regarding our roasted peanuts: Today, 5 wild, green IRNs showed up at our feeder simultaneously!

[ellieelectrons]

lol - soon there'll be hundreds vying for the peanuts!

[Greenie]

Yesterday a mother IRN brought her young one to our feeder.

She grabbed a peanut and they went up to a branch on the tree.

She was feeding the young bird -- we enjoyed watching that.

[Greenie]

Yesterday I "invented" a feeder for our wild IRNs.

It holds peanuts.

I can post a photo of it if you like, or take a video of them using it.

[ellieelectrons]

Would love to see pics and/or video.
Ellie.

[Greenie]

Here is the bird feeder, with some peanuts embedded within holes I drilled in the wood: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/i ... directlink

Here is our latest IRN video: http://youtu.be/JOBufiMNCME

[ellieelectrons]

That bird feeder is mighty cool! Good job!

Great video too. Are they finches? They're very striking too.

Ellie.

[ellieelectrons]

Hmmm, I don't think they are finches, the beaks are too big and their bodies might be too? I'm surprised they don't fly off when Greenie turns up!

Ellie.

[Greenie]

The Java Sparrow, Padda oryzivora, is also known as the Java Finch, Java Rice Sparrow or Java Rice Bird.

Yes, not really a finch. They are aggressive little birds, without any fear of any other birds in our area, certainly.



Scot

[MissK]

Scot,

Thanks so much for posting the info about your IRN friends!
-MissK

[Greenie]

Greenie grabbing a peanut:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/A ... directlink

MissK,

Remember that my observations are based on only a few minutes per day, as these birds do not linger very long in one spot. So, a bird owner can observe a bird for 10 hours in one day, where it takes me 10 months to one year to equal that!

Here is a summary of what I have observed so far:

1. They fly very high when traveling in our valley -- perhaps 200 - 300 feet in elevation.
2. The radius of their travel range per day in our area is probably 4 miles, or more.
3. They "complain" after their food runs out -- squawk!! squawk!! They are very "talkative" and one of them can make quite a racket, as one is doing right now as I type.
4. They appear as solitary birds on occasion, but also will show up in groups of 4 or 5.
5. They exhibit some dominance in relation to the food, as birds from different "families" will bump each other off the feeder. But a couple (male and female) always feed together peacefully.
6. Gradually they are becoming less afraid of us, and sometimes they will not fly away when we re-fill the feeder. They will just sit on the branch about 2 meters away and watch us handle the food.
7. They never aggress other birds unless those birds hassle them -- they seem to be very peaceful.
8. They are very cautious with new things. When we place a new feeder out there, they will sit and watch it from 2-3 meters away for a few days, staring at it.
9. They love the African tulip tree as a food source -- the seeds.
10. They seem to love the rain.
11. They can ascend vertically almost in a straight line, which is very impressive and rapid.
12. They are very good at using their claws to hold food.
13. They use their beaks a lot when they move around branches, holding onto them.
14. They claws are very strong. They can hold onto a moving branch with one foot and feed on a peanut with the other. They can pull the feeder towards their body.
15. As I have said before, they seem to "ask" of "demand" food re-fills, and do so very loudly.

[MissK]

Thanks again, Scot; that's fantastic! Any other cool behaviour you see, let me know.

-MissK

[Greenie]

MissK,

We do not see or hear the IRNs anywhere between 10 am and 4 pm. I assume they vanish into the higher-elevation, cool rainforest area at the upper end of Manoa valley, in the area of Lyon Arboretum, where we have seen other species of parrots. In the morning, groups of three to four IRNs fly high over the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus, heading south -- destination unknown. Then, in the evening, after 4, they become active and visible again in our back yard.

The IRNs are the only birds around here that occasionally hang upside down on the bird feeder.

They avoid feeding on the ground at all costs, probably due to the predatory mongoose population that inhabits the area. Only once in the past year have I seen an IRN on the ground, feeding on something.

Last week, I saw one pluck a flower from a tree in our backyard and fly away with it.

Although we offered them fruit (e.g., bananas), to date they have avoided it. They seem to want sunflower seeds and peanuts. They love the sunflower seeds!

The IRNs seem to be a little bothered by children who scream and make noise and run around. When the kids are playing, the IRNs tend to stay away.

Scot

[BryanJohnny]

I'm from Hawaii (Oahu) in Waipahu, and I own two indian ringnecks. I got them from a breeder. But besides that, I see indian ringnecks flying in my backyard sometimes. I get scared when I see them because I think they're my birds.

[Greenie]

We have at least 36 IRNs in Manoa Valley. I see them flying out of the upper part of the valley in the evenings around 1/2 hour before sunset, heading south. I counted 36 last month flying in several flocks.

Now we have 7 IRNs coming to our bird feeder simultaneously at our apartment near Manoa stream.

They definitely prefer sunflower seeds to peanuts. The peanuts are hardly touched by the IRNs these days, ever since we started putting out sunflower seeds.

[willowisp71]

Hi Greenie,

Wow, what a great thread! That is so cool to hear how the wild IRNs trained you to feed them peanuts....so interesting to hear how they interact in the wild. Thanks for sharing your observations, and keep them coming

Regards Deb