Quaker Parrots & Monk Parakeets in the New York Metro Area
Colin reported on 11.29.09:
Hello there, I was doing house work today and among the things I did was fill the Bird feeder. I continued my chores and opened a window shade to let some sun in and I saw this guy on my feeder. I’m in Rockaway Beach out in Queens. I told a bunch of neighbors who have seen these wild parrots, but today was my first time. I’m pretty excited and Hope I get to see this guy again.
I found you after searching on Google.
Hi everyone,
I have redesigned and redirected my Wild Parrots of New York website – check out the new look and let me know what you think! In the meantime, here is some recent back yard action:
Parrots visit daily, beautiful. They were doing alot of the “kissy face” thing, then as I slowly opened the door, then the screen…they knew I was watching them, backed away from one another, and flew off.
Trey from Rockville Centre reports:
On 2/28/09
This morning I witnessed a flock of wild parrots in a tree in my backyard. These did not appear to be the same species as you described on your web page. The flock of 25 to 35 birds seemed to be quite a bit larger, with red heads. I live in Rockville Centre, the parrots hung out for about 1/2 hour and kept returning to the same tree. I once witnessed a flock in Brooklyn just north of Coney Island. These were a pleasant surprise.
After some back and forth with Trey and local parrot experts, it was determined these could be Cherry Heads, as featured in the film The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Have you seen these birds? Here’s Trey’s best guess as to what they look like:
By the way, for those of you who haven’t seen this film, I highly recommend it…
And yet another expert chimes in to add to the Red Headed mystery:
Every year, early Spring, a flock of wild Conures (Cherry-headed and/or Mitred) are seen near St. John’s University (Jamaica Estates area). In fact, at the same house, coming to munch on their Cherry trees’ blossoms I believe. I think Steve Baldwin has this information on his web site.
They stay for a few days, then are noted as heading off east, out towards Nassau County. It has been a mystery, no one has been able to track them. Where do they winter, we wonder?
Steve Baldwin from Brooklyn Parrots has added the following information on March 4th, 2009:
Hi Judy and Trey,
I know a bit about this flock, but they’re elusive: I’ve never actually spotted them. They’re sort of the “flying dutchmen” of wild parrot flocks in NY.
This is just a hypothesis, but I think this flock lives in Forest Park in Queens. This statement is based on all the sitings I’ve recorded of them. I definitely plan on making an expedition out there as soon as I can.
best,
steve baldwin
brooklynparrots.com
We had a whopper of a storm today – a foot of snow or more. The green in the parrots feathers is almost electric against the white background.
It’s also seems so strange to be seeing a tropical bird in such a cold setting!
I think no further description is necessary… ;^}
Click on the individual photos for a larger view.
I’ve been out of town most of January. Upon my return I’ve noticed that there is no longer a nest in one of the cranes. This particular crane was out of service, so I am not sure if the surrounding neighbors took action or what.
We still have a bunch on our street and they appear to have taken renewed interest in a nest project that I thought they had abandoned a few months ago. Sadly, it’s on a transformer, which will only eventually lead to trouble. They still visit my backyard on a daily basis, but have no interest in our home made nest platform. In looking at what they prefer to build in/on – I would say the platform is not near tall enough (even though it was build as per the directions stated). We are considering at this point moving it so it is higher. The challenge is, it’s really heavy and will only become heavier if the parrots do decide to build on it.
Here are some recent backyard photos, I was disappointed I could not capture them when we had all of the snow on the ground.
I’ve had great luck with just plain sunflower seeds, after spending a boatload of money on fancy parrot food. I have seen up to as many as 6 parrots on this tiny circular feeder – sadly, I muffed the shot!
Well, it took long enough – given the fact they’ve assembled in mass on my street. But today after weeks of circling, they finally bothered to check out the feeders. I was also thrilled to see one of them checking out the platform as well.
Well, our friends are at it again, and this time, it’s on a telephone transformer. Not a great idea. I will encourage the folks on the street to remove this while it’s still being built. The birds won’t attack and they won’t be harmed. They’ll simply get the message this is not a great place to build a nest.
