I don't know much about NC, but the only parrot native to the US used to live there [0], which indicates that it must have been pretty heavily forested prior to

I don't know much about NC, but the only parrot native to the US used to live there [0], which indicates that it must have been pretty heavily forested prior to the Colombian exchange. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_parakeet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_parakeet