Backyard Monks

While we're not certain if Rick from Tamarac, Florida has ever had an Orange Bishop on his landing, thanks to the marvelous series of images he took with his Audubon BirdCam and uploaded to the Wingscapes Photo Gallery we do know that his mother has little green monks in her backyard - Monk Parakeets that is. 

Not native to Florida, or anywhere else in the United States for that matter, Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) were imported from South America to the U.S. by the thousands in the 1960s to be kept as pets. Many escaped and others were simply released; thus there are now tens of thousands of these birds in localized populations in several states from Florida to Washington.

By the way, sorry for the obscrure Monty Python's Flying Circus allusion - it just fit too well not to include. The Orange Bishop (Euplectes franciscanus) is another non-native species imported - in this case from Africa - for similar reasons as the Monk Parakeet; however while it was found in Florida during the 1990s, it is now thought to have been successfully extirpated from the state.