These photos were taken in Hillcrest Estates by Seth Ausubel.
The birds are called Mitred Conures.
An article in the Kingbird explains their story.
These photos were taken in Hillcrest Estates by Seth Ausubel.The birds are called Mitred Conures.An article in the Kingbird explains their story.
14 comments:
Lovely.
Great SHOTS!!!
love a good bird post
Great post!
A bird??!???! Let's gas it!
Abandoned by its owners who brought it with them from "home?" just like they do with their children.
More likely the bird escaped. Parrots are highly intelligent and perfectly capable of opening a cage and flying out an unguarded window.
I lost a parakeet that way as a child. The bird opened his cage and flew out an open door while I screamed frantically for my mom to shut it.
After she finished her chat, she then turned and asked me what I wanted.
I remember hearing about a colony of these birds on the Brooklyn College campus a while back. If I am remembering correctly, they had been there for a few years.
They said the birds came from JFK.
I'm just wondering why there aren't more sightings closer to JFK.
I'm just wondering why there aren't more sightings closer to JFK.
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Jet engines.
These are the Brooklyn parrots - they are native to Argentina - unfortunately, Argentina had SWARMS of them years ago, and as a result, many crops were destroyed - in an effort to control the parrots' population, some were gased and some were transported to other countries. Legend has it that in the 1960s a truckload of them were released in New York.
They were not expected to survive our cold winters - but, they not only survived - they flourished and produced more generations.
They have been sighted in different boroughs - and a couple of years back by the Throgs Neck Bridge in Whitestone.
Google more info on them if you are interested - they have a very big fan club so there is plenty of info on them.
I love that he is looking right into the camera in that last shot.
Got this in the mail:
Hello – I don’t know your name,
But I noticed you posted my photos of the mitred conures and Kingbird article. I’m just fine with that. I am interested in any additional substantial information on these birds that may arise from your blog post. I read through the posted comments. These are NOT the Brooklyn or Whitestone parrots. Those are Monk parakeets and they build stick nests in many places around the tri-state area. They look completely different from the mitred parakeets (a.k.a. mitred conures). They have whitish faces and breasts, and a lot of blue in the wings, while the mitred parakeets are generally all green with red faces.
The mitred parakeets are much rarer in our area. Recent sightings have been only from Queens and southwestern Nassau County. The mitred parakeets don’t build stick nests. They naturally nest in tree cavities and cliff faces. There is virtually no information on whether, or if so where, they nest in the NY area.
Neither the mitred not the monk parakeets pose any known ecological threats in the NY area. Locally the monk nests have sometimes been destroyed because they may interfere with maintenance of electrical equipment. One of the comments alluded to crop destruction in Argentina. These reports need to be viewed in context. The crop damage was transient and not extensive. An underlying cause is destruction of forests and natural habitats for the parrots.
Anyway, thanks for spreading the word and I hope you’ll post this additional info.
Seth Ausubel
Thanks Seth and Crappy - I didn't know the difference between the two species.
As far as the story about how the monk parrots originally came to New York - I am only "parroting" what I have read on the monk parrots' websites. It is local LEGEND, as I stated prior, that they were released in New York in the 1960s.
I see Steve Baldwin of Brooklyn Parrots has given the mitreds some attention also.
Again - thanks for the correction!
http://www.brooklynparrots.com/
Thanks Seth and Crappy - I didn't know the difference between the two species.
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It matterz not. I vill gazz them all!
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