A Monk Parakeet in My Backyard

For weeks now I have been hearing this strange, very loud, sounding bird around my house - one I hadn't heard before at all. I'd look and walk around the area where the noise was coming from in hopes of at least seeing something fly away but never caught a glimpse of it until the other day.

I saw a flash of bright lime green and blue at the feeder. I still wasn't sure what I was seeing so got my camera out and took a couple of pictures - it was a rather large looking parakeet. I thought it might have been someones pet that had escaped but when I was telling my mom about it she told me there was a flock of parakeets in and around the Austin area.

I quickly Googled "Parakeets in Austin" and sure enough there was the same bird - a Monk Parakeet. They are sometimes called "Quaker Parrots" and found out that they were first found here as early as the 1970s. They have been breeding and creating offspring ever since. That is pretty cool considering they are originally Argentina and Brazil.

I understand they are a long-lived bird so maybe this one likes the neighborhood and will stick around. I wouldn't mind that at all.

I wasn't able to get a great picture of it since I stood inside the house and took the pictures through my French door but it looks like he enjoys the company of some of my doves that visit everyday.

Genesis 1:30
And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.