New Book on the The Carolina Parakeet: The U.S.A's Lost Parrot

One of the core reasons I'm interested in wil parrots in urban areas is that this phenomenon represents a curious and wonderful healing of the wound opened by the extinction of North America's only truly indigenous parrot, the Carolina Parakeet.

This gentle, intelligent parrot was wiped out by farmers, hunters, and the millinery industry in the late 19th Century.
Carole Boston Weatherford has written a new book, The Carolina Parakeet: America's Lost Parrot in Art and Memory, tackling the heartbreaking story of the extinction carried out by our forefathers.

This is sobering story of how a young nation loved, laid waste, and lost its only parrot. This much is certain. There was once a gem in the Great Forest, a winged jewel rivaling any in the tropics. It was the Carolina Parakeet, North America's only native parrot. Curiously, within the span of a century, the great flocks dwindled to nothing and this beautiful bird disappeared. Now, it is almost forgotten. All that remain are romantic tableaux penned by pioneers, likenesses limned by artists, specimens cataloged in collections, and longing, wistful longing.

I intend to read this book, to deepen my appreciation of how lucky the U.S.A is to have a second chance to host a parrot on our shores - the less colorful, more racuous, but still wonderful monk parrots we see in the skies over many North American cities. No human willed that parrots would get a second chance to flourish in the U.S.A., but Nature seems to have decided that America cannot get along without a parrot in its skies, and those sensing the wonder of this gift must cherish it.