Many have noticed that the budgerigar has been removed from the new AOU
Checklist of North American Birds, while the rosy-faced lovebird has
been added. The reasoning for these changes seems solid. Both were
introduced from native populations in continents far away, but thus far
one has succeeded, and the other has just about vanished. For now.
        I know after all these years the AOU is sufficiently humble to admit
that introduced species may over time flourish, but later wink out for
unanticipated reasons, losing their status as a North American species.
I recall a birding trip to Arizona some years back with my brother Pete
and his wife Lucy. On our arrival we stayed at a rather
disreputable--cheap, but birdy--motel in a shabby suburb. Arising of
course at a birdworthy hour, we saw a small flock of lovebirds (Pete and
I had seem them on an earlier trip, but they were new to Lucy) in the
parking lot. Some of them seemed interested in the seeds of marijuana
plants that had sprouted in cracks of the cement in the parking lot.
Surely these African birds had flourished and adapted to a new
environment.  See http://www.azfo.org/journal/rosy-facedlovebird2011.html  .
        Years earlier, Pete and I had sought out the population of budgerigars
thought to be new natives of Florida's west coast. See
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/jfo/v055n02/p0214-p0219.pdf
. Like the lovebirds, they had flourished in areas frequented by humans,
and were not hard to find. Their removal from the official North
American list was apparently largely influenced by a steep decline in
their numbers caused by another exotic bird, the European starling--a
species that frequents human-dominated habitats, like its unwelcome
companion the house sparrow. Florida is a veritable zoo of introduced
birds, whose status as AOU species promises to change a lot and change
again as time passes.
        I dunno--surely budgies (then) and lovebirds (now) would be more
decorative, and perhaps less disturbing to native species, but the
inexorable fatal laws of evolution rule when we tinker with bird
populations. It seems best to stick with what remain of our native birds.
Bill Whan
Cols

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