A burst of color in Hillcrest

These photos were taken in Hillcrest Estates by Seth Ausubel.
The birds are called Mitred Conures.
An article in the Kingbird explains their story.

Report of Hootie's firing was premature

From the NY Times:

...despite reports that the fake owl has been fired, Con Edison technicians are giving him another chance, turning to something else known to deter parakeets: the color orange.

“We put an orange cape on Hootie, and now he’s Super Hootie,” said Sam Maratto, a Con Ed technician who is leading his troops in the ongoing battle against the wild parakeets that are colonizing overhead electrical equipment and causing damages and power outages in Whitestone.

Con Ed kicks Hootie to the curb

From the NY Post:

Add "Hootie" the owl to the ranks of the recently unemployed.

Con Ed workers yesterday "fired" the mechanical bird, which failed to scare parrots off a Queens electrical transformer, repeatedly allowing the equipment to blow up because of their nests.

"The birds win!" said a Con Ed worker who took down the blown $25,000 transformer -- and Hootie -- in Beechhurst. "The owl's fired!"

The transformer, like others in the area a favored nesting place for parrots, exploded Monday because of a rain-drenched nest, leading to a 45-minute power outage for more than 1,500 customers.

Hootie the Owl vs. the Whitestone Parakeets

From the NY Times:

Many of Con Edison’s challenges are well known — blackouts and steam pipe explosions included — but a lesser-known problem has proved no less nagging: how to protect its equipment from the thousands of monk parakeets that nest in the utility poles of Queens and Brooklyn.

According to the prevailing theory, the birds escaped from cargo at Kennedy International Airport and now proliferate mostly in Brooklyn and Queens, with perhaps 300 nests that cause “a tremendous cost” to Con Edison, Mr. Williams said. In eight fires on overhead equipment in past 18 months, the nests are the main suspects.

One Con Edison crew has come up with its own solution: a plastic battery-powered owl that swivels its head and makes a hooting noise, bought at a local nursery.

Hootie worked like a charm. Months went by with no new nests. But suddenly the nests were back, and the crew was back again to replace the equipment.

“Hootie’s batteries went dead,” Mr. Goodwin said. The birds immediately detected him as a fake and built their nest next to him.