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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Longland" data-source="post: 3596685" data-attributes="member: 137696">I fondly remember a budgie that hooked up with a flock of tree sparrows back in the seventies and hung around for a couple of years or so.  Whilst never making it onto any lists it was a bit of a local talking point and became somewhat of a celebrity and always added a bit of fun to the days birding. Back in those days to us teenage birders with no more than our pocket money (bus fare) to fund our birding adventures it represented the closest we were likely to get to real rarities.  far from dismissing it, we actually were genuinely interested in its well being and behaviour in the wild.  The eagerly awaited "Spudgies" as we termed any potential offspring unfortunately never arrived.  It did however demonstrate an ability to adapt and survive (sparrow hawks were of course back in those days almost as rare as the budgie in our neck of the woods).  just as suprsing was the Tree Sparrows acceptance of this obvious interloper.I think in the case of obvious escapees like the above then it all adds to the experience.  Where it starts to get a bit murky is when the bird in question is a serious contender (Stows BRT for eg) then the debate can become somewhat diversionary and even descend into downright nastiness with various agendas at play.Sometimes we should just accept a bird simply for what it is and be grateful for the experience.</blockquote>