Tropical Audubon Society

South Florida’s Voice of Conservation

I also became aware of ABA's updated list of countable exotics yesterday. Details are at https://www.aba.org/aba-area-introduced-species/. ABA now considers an exotic species to be countable in a specific location if a population of that species has been present at that location for at least 15 years. Exotics that satisfy that criteria and are now ABA countable in south Florida include Indian Peafowl, Red Junglefowl (only the Key West population), Nanday Parakeet, Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, Red-crowned Parrot and Scaly-breasted Munia.

Earlier this year, William Chatfield-Taylor submitted papers to Florida Ornithological Society for Florida populations of Mitred and Red-masked Parakeets. It's my understanding that he also plans to write papers for other parrot species currently not considered countable. So stay tuned for more additions to the countable exotics list in south Florida.

Under that ABA criteria, then both Red-masked and Mitred Parakeets should be ABA-countable, as both have been established in Miami for well over 15 years.

There are actually eight criteria that ABA uses to determine if an exotic has been established. These criteria are listed at https://www.aba.org/criteria-for-determining-establishment-of-exotics/. The "15-year rule" is Criterion # 6. Criterion # 8 requires publication of a peer-reviewed paper that describes how Criteria 1-7 have been met. I assume it's up to the FOS Records Committee, then the ABA Checklist Committee, to determine if the papers written by Will Chatfield-Taylor satisfy Criterion # 8.

But whether papers are written is now irrelevant under the new ABA rule, as stated in the preamble of the link you provided, if the population has been present for 15+ years. That's the list they published. Maybe papers can provide evidence of the 15 year rule for a particular species sometimes though, thus adding it to the list.

By the way I can think of many more additions to the list from southern CA and elsewhere, and likely Florida.

The bird still has to be on the ABA List to be countable. The peafowl and the junglefowl are now on the list thanks to the addition of Hawaii to the ABA Area. They are considered established in Hawaii. But now, thanks to the new rule, you can also count them in South Florida as they have been here for over 15 years. Egyptian Goose was added to the ABA List a few years ago based on the Florida population being considered established but now you can count them in California thanks to the new rule. Things like that. But you still can't count a bird that's not on the ABA List at all, regardless of whether or not it's been there for 15+ years. Mitred and Red-masked Parakeets are currently not considered established anywhere and are therefore not on the ABA List. Hence the papers to try to get them on. They definitely should be on there. I wondered why White-eyed wasn't included in the papers. Not to mention the Blue-crowneds in Broward.

Excellent explanation, Greg!

Blue-crowned Parakeet is definitely on Will's radar for a future paper. Hopefully, White-eyed Parakeet is also on his radar.

Great! Thanks!

So if I see White-winged Parakeet & Yellow-chevroned Parakeet In Broward count as ABA (this year) or only if I see them in Miami. These are flocks of parakeets that move through the counties on a regular basis

I would interpret "Miami region" for White-winged and Yellow-chevroned Parakeet to include Broward County. ABA has been tinkering with their location descriptions since publishing their update last week. For example, Red-crowned Parrot has been changed from "Miami region" to a more currently accurate "Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach region." In my opinion, they should do the same for WWPA and YCPA, changing it to "Miami to Fort Lauderdale region."

And did you notice the species name change from Gray-headed Swamphen to Purple Swamphen in the October 26th revision.

AOU, and by extension ABA, hasn’t accepted the split of Purple Swamphen into Gray-headed Swamphen and several other species. Cornell accepted the split, so Gray-headed Swamphen and the other splits are used on eBird.