Is this a mistake? While it is true that California has established populations, I don't think that the ones that we have should be considered part of these populations. This recent checklist ( https://ebird.org/checklist/S324483530) has the bird labelled as "Escapee", but the earlier checklists of Lake Los Carneros Park (2012 and 2013), Cachuma Lake (2015), Saint Francis Ranch (2022) have it as "Naturalized". I'm surprised by these different labels.
Yes, I went down this rabbit hole while thinking about our Swinhoe's White-eye, which likely *are* part of the established California population.
