I was reading up on them just now and apparently they escaped from the pet trade and were first sighted in the area back in 1969. And now they've pretty much moved in. One of the problems with Florida - it's just too hospitable! Plus, we have a lot of stupid people who buy pets and then change their minds and let them go in the wild. A lot of counties are now hosting "Pet Amnesty Day" where you can bring an exotic pet and they will re-home it for you. No kidding - my brother was driving in our neighborhood (suburbs) a few years back and found an Old World Veiled Chameleon running across the street! Luckily, we had raised a Bearded Dragon before so we were sort of prepared for to take in another lizard. We tried to see if anyone was missing him (because they are not cheap pets) but never saw anything so we built him a cage and he lived with us for the next two years until he died. Fortunately, these Nanday Parakeets don't seem to be invasive and don't appear to be harming the native ecosystem. But they sure are loud! Oh, and FYI, one of them was eating those yellow flowers in the picture.
