Summary: <p>This week’s episode is about the Carolina parakeet, a cheerful, pretty bird that was once common in the central and eastern United States but which has been extinct for a century. Thanks to Maureen for the suggestion! I’ve paired it with the elephant bird, a gigantic extinct bird that we don’t know much about except for its enormous eggs.</p> <p>The Carolina parakeet, deceased:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-454" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/c-carolinensis-300x288.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="288"></p> <p>An ex-parrot next to an ex-passenger pigeon:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-453" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/pigeonandparakeet-300x135.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="135"></p> <p>A still from the 1937? Nelson video:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-455" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/parakeet-300x220.png" alt="" width="300" height="220"></p> <p>The 2014 mystery parakeet photo:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-456" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/carolinaparakeethmm-300x212.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="212"></p> <p>An elephant bird, an elephant bird egg, and Sir David Attenborough (right):</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-457" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/elephant-bird-_1788586a.jpg" alt="" width="1" height="1"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-459" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/elephantbird-300x188.png" alt="" width="300" height="188"></p> <p><strong>Further Reading/Watching:</strong></p> <p>Here’s a <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1525/auk.2010.10084">close evaluation of the Nelson video</a> taken in the late 1930s, supposedly in the Okefenokee Swamp.</p> <p>I can’t get the Nelson video to embed properly, so <a href="http://macaulaylibrary.org/video/455279/share">here’s a link</a> to it. You’ll need to scroll down to the bottom of the page for a decent-sized version that will play.</p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>This week’s episode is about two birds, one small and one really big, and both extinct. Probably.</p> <p>First, let’s learn about the Carolina parakeet, a suggestion by listener Maureen. It was a type of small parrot that was common throughout a big part of the United States, as far west as Nebraska and parts of Colorado and as far north as New York, and as far south as Florida and around the Gulf of Mexico. It had a yellow and orange head</p>
