Today’s exercise in ecological imagination: the skies of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas are alive with the sound of the tropics as flocks of bright blue parrots move from forest to farm field to town, munching on seeds of red cedar and cocklebur and buttonbush. I once labeled a photo of a particularly well-grown raft of floating wetlands as the “jungles of Lake Wister.” Now add parrots… (Yes, I said blue. Keep reading.)
Nuttall only mentions the eastern North American native parrot one time. He was working his way downstream on the Mississippi: “On the river lands…grows platanus [sycamore] and button-wood, upon the seeds of which flocks of screaming parrots were greedily feeding.” (:67)
We know from other sources, though, that parrots were present in eastern Oklahoma at the time of his visit and for some years after.
Distribution maps of the Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) have typically shown all the eastern half of the present US as their home, with two subspecies and overlapping distributions. Recently Burgio (2017) reexamined historical records and produced the more refined map below:
The “Louisiana” subspecies Conuropsis carolinensis ludovicianus was bluer than the bright green of the familiar Audubon print. I had somehow missed that Audubon had also painted ludovicianus:
Though somehow less “tropical” with its more subdued blue plumage, they are still quite beautiful, and I wish they were out there noshing on juniper berries in my yard right now.
The last known wild Carolina parakeet was killed in Okeechobee County, Florida, in 1904, and the last captive bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918.
While best known as a botanist, Nuttall made significant contributions to North American ornithology. Founded in 1873, the Nuttall Ornithological Club is the oldest organization in US devoted to ornithology and named in his honor.
Jona Tucker has been working on a presentation on Nuttall and birds. The Oklahoma Ornithological Society is coming to Lake Wister in May this year for their spring meeting and Jona will give her presentation for them.
I am looking forward to having them visit Lake Wister and to her presentation.
You can learn more about Nuttall and birds by participating in one of our spring Nuttall tours:
Saturday April 27, 2019 – Nuttall in the Poteau River Valley
Friday and Saturday May 17-18, 2019 – From the Poteau to the Kiamichi – traverse the Choctaw Nation from the Arkansas River to the Red River following Nuttall’s trail
Join us!