Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!
Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!
Parakeets Underground
Not all birds nest in trees – these birds are expert tunnelers!
© Nick Athanas
Burrowing Parakeets excavate deep nest tunnels in sandstone and limestone cliffs in Argentina and Chile. The colony’s many tunnels zigzag and interconnect, creating an intricate labyrinth. Their nesting colonies are among the largest of any parrot — one in Argentina has 70,000 birds!
Listen to this show in Spanish here.
BirdNote®
Parakeets Underground
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Burrowing Parakeet colony sounds]
A flock of hundreds of parakeets swirls into a deep ravine in Argentina. The ravine’s sides are riddled with thousands of small holes — the nest holes of an enormous colony of Burrowing Parakeets.
The parakeets excavate deep nest tunnels in sandstone and limestone cliffs high above a river or the coastline. The colony’s many tunnels zigzag and interconnect, creating an intricate labyrinth. Their nesting colonies are among the largest of any parrot — one in Argentina has 70,000 birds!
[Burrowing Parakeet colony sounds]
Burrowing Parakeets are big and slender, a foot and a half tall, with long tails, golden green wings and yellow underparts marked with orange.
[Burrowing Parakeet]
Aboveground, they roam in search of seeds and fruit over dry, open country in Chile and Argentina. Once a common sight, they’ve declined due to human activities, including land development and being treated as an agricultural pest.
The large flocks sleep together in trees or in their nesting burrows. Just before sunrise they leave the roost and gather en masse to forage over the countryside.
Soon the flock is on the move, their raucous calls filling the air.
[Burrowing Parakeet colony sounds]
For BirdNote, I’m Ariana Remmel.
###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Burrowing Parakeet ML 299921521 recorded by Emanuel Tiberi.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote May 2022 Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID # BURPAR-01-2023-05-22 BURPAR-01
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2012/apr/03/3
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
