Posted by Bob Kelley on May 08, 2003 at 05:30:29:
I am trying again with an update on the introduction of the spot-breasted oriole into
south Florida 50+ years ago. The mangled specimen
sent to the National Museum wasmost likely the bird
that the Owre's cat "collected" on Irvington Avenue in Coconut Grove in the early 1950s.
In Robertson and Woolfenden there is a reference to
the Wilson Bulletin article by Dr. Owre in the 1970s
(I do not have the exac reference here at home) where
he discusses various exotic birds in south Florida.
R&W say that the SPBOs were escapees from a commercial attraction(but do not give the name), but I am sure that Dr. Owre told me that they were introduced as cage birds in Miami around that time. I will try to track down his article. We do know that the first red-whiskered bulbuls were escapees from the now closed Rare Bird Farm which was located near US1 and SW102nd Street in the early 1960s.
SPBO were very common in the area around the campus of the University of Miami in the 1960s and 1970s until the freeze of January, 1977. The south Florida populations, which had reached as far north as Lake Wales in central Florida, were decimated by this freeze. The populations finally seem to be recovering after 25 years.
It is good to have them back.
Bob Kelley