Attracting Monk Parrots

My neighborhood in Metairie (western suburb of New Orleans) has a good supply of wild Monk Parrots (also known as Quakers). I would like to attract them to my backyard feeders but haven't found out what they like. I've tried mixed seeds, fruits, etc. I even tried putting out little tomatoes in the backyard lawn. I've seen them twice in my nextdoor neighbors crepe myrtle tree -- see picture. I hear them a lot and see them fly over but they rare stop by. I would love to have them visit my feeders.

Hi mrw31 ! Thats a great photo!

I'm surprised you haven't had them visit your yard but their going to be very cautious.

I'm not at all surprised they didn't visit the tomotoes on the ground because parrots feel very vulnerable on the ground.

You could try having a mix of shelled and not shelled peanuts hanging up somewhere that would be easy for them to get to. It probably would need to be an area where they can see all over from so they would have a chance against predators. Maybe try the fruit again too (berrys, grapes maybe some corn also).

Its going to take a lot of patience. Please keep us posted! :-)

Oh and by the way:

Welcome to Daves and the bird watching forum!

Might not be too good an idea to attract them - I've heard they can do a lot of damage once they start hanging around a lot.

Resin

I was outside this morning and noticed 3 birds that I have never seen in my yard, before. They were happily feasting in my crepe myrtle. I grabbed my digital cam and took a few pics. I though they looked like parrots so I did a search and found pics and this post. I think they might be monk parrots. How cool! Here is a pic.

Yes they are monk parakeets!

Heres some info on them, their illegal to own in many US states.

http://monkparakeet.com/index1.htm


Welcome to the Bird Watching forum at Daves!

It took until winter, but the monks are now feeding daily at my feeders in Metairie, LA. They seemed to suddenly find me about two weeks ago -- first one parrot, then two, then four, then more -- the most I counted was 18 of them waiting to feed. Regular seed mix seems to be what they want -- I see them eating the small seeds. They are still very shy and anything will make them leave. They won't mess with the squirrels but are the biggest birds around the feeders. It's funny to see the sparrows and finches get at them -- the little birds are more aggressive then these big parrots.

Here's a picture of two waiting to feed -- I swear one of them has an angry look at being caught in the camera.

Really nice pics of the parrots. We can only see parrots in pet store here. From the first picture, I thought they were really big, but looking, at the one at the feeders, they are not as big as I thought. Love your green birds. Nice to see different birds.

Beautiful pics mrw!

When I was in college, my roomie had a Quaker parakeet. He was the cutest little thing. She taught him to say "Whatcha doin'?" but he would say it in the cutest little voice: "Whatcha doin' - doin' - doin' - doin' . . . " and get stuck like a broken record.

Here's a picture I would love to be able to sharpen more, but I'm taking pictures with a digital camera through a zoom lens and a window. And these parrots are skittish.

Another monk shot -- one bird trying to get on the feeder.

One more picture -- the parrots line up on a set of power lines above my house and wait until the feeders are relatively empty. Then one parrots gives a squak and they all start going in to the feeders. This picture is a pair that I see frequently together.

Beautiful pics!

mrw31 - great photos! You should be able to see their nest nearby - you won't have trouble seeing it, if you haven't already. They don't live in simple nests, but huge things with tunnels and chambers for the different family groups. Cute little guys, though they do cause problems when they choose the wrong location for their colonies.

Nice pictures! It is interesting that there has been a colony in a zone 5 Chicago (proper) park for many years. There has been a rumor that they also have a colony in Duluth, MN, but I don't know if that is true. It amazes me that they can survive cold.

Susan in Minneapolis

I've seen several nests nearby -- there is a baseball park about two blocks away from me - Mike Miley - that has nests in the electric lights. I'm pretty sure the parrots are from that area. We also have nests in microwave towers but they're farther away. They look like a pile of sticks. The parrots seem to have a route they follow -- they show up in the morning around 10am to 11am and then again in the afternoon anywhere between 2 and four. I started noticing them last year and actually learned how to spot them by the sound they make rather than their appearance. They can be really hard to spot against trees and bushes -- green parrots against a green background. Once I learned what they sounded like I started to see them in lots of places -- I can thank the Brooklyn Parrot video on Youtube for that.

Wonderful pics! And your parrots are so cute cuddling together!

Welcome to DG--and don't go away for so long again--keep us posted on the parrots please!

And what other interesting birds do you have in Metairie?...

Happy birding, t.

Lots of birds in our area that are not monk parrots -- predominently morning doves, sparrows, finches, cardinals, grackles, mocking birds. I used to have two huge trees in my backyard -- a live oak and a pecan - but unfortunately Hurricane Katrina took out both of them. What I tried to do is to make a few bird houses and put them up to make up for the lack of trees. Here is my favorite picture of one of those -- you can see I'm not a great carpenter. This picture looks like the mother sparrow was ushering her offspring out of the birdhouse in a hurry. Probably reacting to me taking her picture.

mrw31: Great photo's!

I had no idea the Quaker/Monk Parrakeet was all over the country until I found this site awhile back: http://invasions.bio.utk.edu/invaders/monk.html

Apparently they are found in many states (scroll down the page a bit for listing). I've not seen them in my neighborhood but my friend a mile away has them around her house. And, there are thousands in South Florida that we see at my sister's house all the time. When my mom was living I would go down to Fort Lauderdale to visit her and they were all over the mobile home park where she lived. After a rain you would see hundreds congregating and bathing in puddles in the middle of the street. We used to sit on mom's porch and watch them collect sticks and branches for their nests. I once sat there and saw a beautiful Maccaw flying up into a tree with nesting material too!

I guess the Monk/Quaker parrots adapt to different habitat's and weather since they are found even in Oregon, Delaware and New York. I wonder if they migrate in winter like other birds? I need to go back and read through that entire article again ... haven't read it in a long time.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful photo's of these birds!

This is a very interesting thread...makes me think of the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco...Deb

Are the wild parrots on Telegraph Hill monk parrots, too?

The parrot photos made me think of the parrots in our Juniper trees in Pasadena CA...the story was that they had escaped from a pet store that caught fire, but that sounds like one of those Urban Legends, doesn't it?!

mmmm....I wonder...

I just googled "wild parrots" and there must be a movie about them...anybody rent "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill"?

Nope, the Parakeets at Telegraph Hill aren't the monk's parrots ... but the much more colorful red masked parakeets! Still of the parrot family, just a different one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph_Hill,_San_Francisco


edited to say: The wild parrots in Florida originally were pets that folks got tired of and released into the wild, as the red masked ones in California were. We have a problem in some areas of Florida with Snakes that people have released ... bought them small as pets and when they grew large, they released them! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1028_051028_pythons.html I would have a heart attack if I found a snake like that in my yard! There's also a problem with Monitor Lizards here in Florida ... a couple have been found in Orlando neighborhoods recently! http://myfwc.com/nonnatives/exotics/SpeciesNumberResults.asp?SPPNO=291 People's pets have been victims (dinner) for some of these creatures!
Scary! http://www.wildlifedamagecontrol.net/reptiles/monitorlizard.php

This message was edited Jan 10, 2008 3:17 PM

I didn't rent the movie, I bought it from PBS for my grandson for Christmas a year ago....it's wonderful....Deb

Great movie Depsi! & Those were Green Parrots I believe..

Still I see how Metairie's thread here reminded you of it.:-)

Years ago I had a Quaker Parakeet. He/she was an incredible talker, but I could also hear the screech a block away.

There are a few colonies in Seattle and I think they are creating problems, here, too.

Don't they live in nesting colonies on the ground in their native habitat in South America? Wonder if they've changed that in the colonies in colder climates.

I think it's would be wonderful and bizarre to see parrots at the feeder here. Last year I saw a wayward budgerigar feeding off the ground a couple days... Yep on the ground!

I would just have to fix what they destroyed... It would be very cool to have them over.

Really love your parrots mrw! Thanks for sharing them..

debnes

Thanks for all the discussion about the parrots -- I confess I'm fascinated by them. I had caged parakeets when I was younger but never did very well with them. Having them in my backyard and watching them "do their own thing" is much more fun.

I have seen the documentary about the parrots of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco - I think most of those are red-headed conures. Its a very good documentary and well worth a look if you haven't seen it. I've also seen the "Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots" on Youtube, which is great fun to watch. The parrot colonies in Brooklyn are monk or quaker parrots - like the ones around New Orleans. Not as big or flashy as the red headed conures but bigger than a parakeet.

I think most of the issues about the monk parrots being trouble comes from their habit of nesting in electric fixtures and lighting. That is what they seem to do around my area -- although I have seen their nests in tall palms trees, also. They seems to like the microwave towers the best -- tall towers with a platform on top. I don't know if the nests do anything to the functioning of the microwave towers but apparently the electric companies don't always appreciate sharing their equipment with the monks - the nests can get really big. I did read that a builder can put up equipment in their lighting or towers that will repel -- some kind of reflector that flashes and scares them away. That must have been done recently in our minor league ballpark -- big banks of lights but no parrot nests.

Thx mrw.. for reminding me that the movie was about Red-headed Conures, not Green Parrots, LOL! oldtimers setting in.. :-

I agree with ya, worth the trouble. If I can put up with Starlings nesting in the framework of my house, I could put up with Monks or Quakers for sure. You are very blessed/lucky to have them.

debnes

I think the monks are beautiful and definitely worth it. And I've yet to hear a news story around here about a power outage caused by monk parrots. I work in an oil refinery and have seen power outages caused by squirrels but no one around here is advocating a plan to get rid of all the squirrels. Monk parrots are getting a bad rap, I believe, because their nests are unusual looking and stand out from other birds.

Here's a picture of 12 of them waiting for the feeder to get clear

Another shot on the wire...

And one more of my favorite pair.

Great pics mrw!!

Here's an egret thrown in -- yes, we get our share of water birds around New Orleans. I was trying out my new zoom lens in a nearby park and got this shot.

Beautiful shots mwr! They are a beautiful parrot!

I think the problem I heard about them years ago had to do w/ crops.

Thats a great one of the Egret!

Hi everyone..just found this thread..yep we have one..she is the sweetest..to me..but does not like my hubby...hehehe...and she can bite if she does not like you for sure...She is the loudest..of all my birds..She likes to get under my chin..and cuddle...lol..I love her dearly..((( You say love a bird?))) hehe it is true..
She is never inside her cage..except for at night when she is in her house..and covered up...lol...They are not outlawed in Michigan..One of the few parrots that if they get out...they can get used to the cold weather.. Hehehe...Her name is PJ...well we think it is a her...

Smiles...and enjoy them...Diana

She's (?) lovely WG!