It’s a saga that brings tears to the eyes.
Years ago, back in the late 1960’s or 1970’s, some imported Argentinian parrots arrived in the US and set up housekeeping in Brooklyn, a section of New York famous for their immigrant neighborhoods.
How the Quaker Parrots got there is not known: theories range from being blown there by a hurricane to someone inadvertently opening a box at one of the nearby airports, and instead of finding contraband drugs or liquor, they found live parrots, who promptly flew the coop.
And, like other immigrants, they established families, who had more families…all over Brooklyn, despite Federal attempts to eradicate them. But it didn’t work.
BrooklynParrots website explains:
In 1973,… the Federal eradication teams, having achieved most of their parrot suppression efforts, approached one of the last remaining parrot strongholds, a nest complex on Rikers Island, Queens. After loading their guns and preparing their nets, a forward observation team reported disturbing news: the parrots had withdrawn and evidently disappeared into the fog….It will never be known whether the Rikers Island Parrots were “tipped off” by “someone on the inside” that the Feds were gunning for them. But it is likely that many of the birds we find today in Queens, the Bronx, and elsewhere are directly related to the survivors of the Great Rikers Island Monk Parrot Standoff.
The parrots, like other birds, sometimes are pesty and annoying, but the major problem is their nesting habits: the parrots build huge nests that allow the parrots to stay warm through the cold North American winter, but the tendency for the birds to use warm powerlines or electrical equipment instead of trees to build their nests has caused problems. Usually the nests have to be removed by workers, but at least six fires (plus neighborhood blackouts) have been caused by the birds.
So what should one do? Should the birds again be eradicated as a potentially dangerous foreign species, or should it be protected as any other local birds, many of which also originate elsewhere?
A local politician, Tony Avella, has proposed legislation that would protect the parrots and mandate that their nests be removed gently and relocated elsewhere outside of mating season so that the baby parrots won’t be harmed.
So, endangered species or dangerous pest?
BrooklynParrots website has more information about the parrots, including videos for your enjoyment. Or you can watch the Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots on YOUTUBE.
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Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. Her website is FinestKind Clinic and Fishmarket.
2 users commented in " Save the Brooklyn Parrots! "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI can share a little info on how the parrots arrived in Brooklyn and in Edgewater, NJ, as well as some humane suggestions as to how to handle the wild parrot nests.
They were imported as “would-be” pets in the 60’s and 70’s. A crate containing the parrots broke open, and the parrots were inadvertently released into the wild.
This “urban legend” was confirmed when a man who worked at the airport told me the story when we were at the Throgg’s Neck Little League ball field, during the baby Quaker rescue last summer.
Nest maintenance is the key to successful and humane management of the wild Quakers. In Edgewater, NJ, our utility company, PSE&G removes nests from the utility poles twice a year–once before the breeding season in late April and again in the fall, after all of the babies have fledged. I consult with PSE&G and let them know when it is safe to remove nests, and I also accompany them on every nest removal to insure that no parrots are harmed.
We also install orange insulating sleeve on the top of every utility pole to dissuade the parrots from re-building (they do not like the color orange, and did not re-build on 19 of the 21 poles where we installed orange insulating sleeve). The orange insulating sleeve is inexpensive and already approved for use by all utility companies, since it is routine equipment.
PSE&G is to be commended for consulting with Edgewater Parrots and for their efforts to insure humane treatment of the wild parrots.
If only every utility company did this, we’d be OK!
All the best,
Alison
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Alison Evans-Fragale RN, MSN, FNP-BC, CLNC
Founder
EdgewaterParrots.com
The phrase “further research is needed” must never become a euphemism for failure to act!
Sign our petition to save the wild parrots of New Jersey at: http://www.petitiononline.com/njparrot/petition.html
Hi my name is jon, I grew up in brooklyn and lived with them in my backyard.An old timer told me later on when i lived in seagate. That a ship sank off the verrazano narrows and that how they came to brooklyn
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