Parrots, Wild and Not-So-Wild

Every time we visit Andy's Dad and brother in Amity Harbor, NY, we keep an eye out for the wild parrots that have lived in his neighborhood for the last 3 years. On our recent trip over Thanksgiving, there was a larger flock of them than we have ever seen before, and I crept up on them to get some photos. I counted about 20 of the little noisy monsters roaming around for ground-goodies next to the iced-over canal. These guys are natives of Argentina and Brazil, where they are considered crop pests, but they are very hardy for tropical parrots and can survive in temperate climates like NY or even Chicago. The story with the NY ones is that some shipment of parrots was "liberated" by animal rights activists at JFK Airport in the 1970s, and a handful of small populations have grown from that release. I don't know how true the story really is, but there are definitely flocks that I know of in Brooklyn, several places in Queens, and Amity Harbor. Though technically they are an invasive species, they really don't bother me (ecologically) where they live in NY- usually they are competing with the other "invasives" like starlings and house sparrows anyway. And they are much more fun to watch.

Some Quaker Parrot/Monk Parakeets looking for lawn treats in Amity Harbor

Mixing it up with the Starlings

Fighting for feeder space with the House Sparrows

Birders (like us) call them Monk Parakeets; pet bird owners (like us) call them Quaker Parrots; we call ours Tupelo! Unlike her Long Island cousins, our Tupelo would not last 10 minutes if we put her outside in a snowbank in winter. She's fat and pampered, and her only skills are clucking like a chicken, fetching tissue paper balls, and whistling a really bad "Don't Cry for me Argentina." None of those will get you dinner in the wild, though some might turn you into dinner.

Andy recently mentioned that we didn't have a single picture of our birds on the blog, so I would like to officially introduce our 3 feathered children:

This is Tupelo, the Quaker Parrot. She is a complete clown- she can do a laugh that sounds exactly like a person in hysterics (and the more you laugh at her, the louder she gets). Her favorite foods are butter (peanut and cow) and cheese, and she loves to give kisses and purr like a cat. She also says a few somewhat decipherable words, like "Hi Tupe Baby, Hello, and NO BITE!"

This is Tiki, the Cockatiel. Tiki was our first bird- she was given to Andy by some friends who rescued her from flying bewilderedly around a Long Island neighborhood. Tiki is a princess, and Andy is her prince. She does not like me, or anyone else for that matter. But she does like her head scritched (by Andy) and has a pretty whistle.

This is Zaitsev, the Green Cheek Conure. Zaitsev was named after a Russian sniper from WWII, Vasilli Zaitsev. We waited a few weeks to name him after we adopted him, and it was a good thing because we would have had to change it if we had gone ahead with Cuddles. Zaitsy is actually a very sweet bird, but he has a bad temper. If you rub his feathers the wrong way, so to speak, he will pierce your finger like a grape with his pointy beak. Zaitsy loves fruit juice and hiding in dark crannies.