LIHUE — The nightly migration of birds to the palm trees outside the Kukui Grove Mall at sunset might make a person stop and listen to their evening music.
Or, it might make someone take cover, like actress Tippi Hedren had to do in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller, “The Birds,” when the green parakeets thrash around the trees.
They are Rose-ringed Parakeets, also known as the Psittacula krameri, and the impressive flocks can be heard like clockwork chirping loudly every sunset. You can identify them by their bright green coats and long tails. The male birds have a ring around their neck. The females and young birds do not.
Both males and females, however, are rather noisy.
“The Kauai Rose-ringed Parakeets are being seen quite regularly in the Koloa district, though I suspect they are being seen in many more areas than that,” said Mike Ord.
Ord is an active volunteer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He served on the American Birding Association Board of Directors for nine years. He was also the president of Hawaii Audubon Society from 1963 through 1968.
It turns out, the colorful birds hail from half a world away, but have been on island for nearly 100 years. They’re either a pest or a beautiful sightseeing attraction, depending on whom you ask.
“Over the past 30 years there have been reports of efforts to try and control the population as they were deemed to be a problem for the agricultural people,” Ord said. “Whether this was actual or not, I do not have any confirmed information.”
Keren Gundersen, the acting project manager for the Kauai Invasive Species Committee, said the Rose-ringed Parakeet is native to sub-Saharan Africa, India, Pakistan, Burma and nearby areas. They were imported as a cage bird to Hawaii. They eventually escaped their cages — some of them anyway — and free roaming parakeets were noted in Honolulu around the 1930s. But they weren’t added to the official Hawaii checklist until 1988.
Gundersen said the Smithsonian records note the observance of the green parakeets on Kauai.
Records show the birds were released by workers at a bed-and-breakfast inn during the 1960s near Lawai and by 1981, they were recorded regularly foraging in nearby Hanapepe Valley and roosting nightly at Kukuiolono Park in Kalaheo.
The report notes that 13 years later, a flock of between 150 and 200 birds was reported. The parakeet population continued to grow to several hundred and by 1997, it had found homes in areas stretching from Hanapepe to Mahaulepu east of Koloa. The state biologist issued crop-damage permits to shoot the birds, according to Smithsonian records.
Ord remembers seeing the Rose-ringed Parakeets during the early ‘60s.
“For reasons I do not know, the Rose-ringed Parakeets started to roost in the parking yard of the Central Union Church on Beretania and Punchbowl” streets, Ord said. “The flock is now up to over 1,000 birds and if you want to see them, the time to be there is about 10 minutes before sunrise.”
In late 2000, a new round of birds, estimated to be nearly 1,000, were noted on Kauai, according to Smithsonian records. Up to 50 were recorded nesting and roosting in Lihue.
“When you see them in sunlight, they are gorgeous,” Ord said.
Occasionally, people will gather to watch the parakeets at sunrise and sunset in the trees near the Historic County Building and at the Kukui Grove Mall.
“This would be a difficult species to control as they are very easily observed, and usually the public is not in favor of killing animals in general,” Gundersen said. “Not realizing that they are not native, may pose a threat to our native birds and impact agriculture. Plus, they are birds. Much sympathy goes toward birds, no matter if they are a nuisance or not. If they crawled on the ground and had long. naked tails, that would be a different story.”
• Lisa Ann Capozzi, features and education reporter can be reached at lcapozzi@thegardenisland.com
