New thread in case people want to continue to talk about monk parrots. As I posted before, they seemed to have survived Hurricane Gustave quite nicely. I had minor roof damage and trees leaning. Will try to take some pictures when I can and post here
Thanks mrw! Beautiful pic!
Just thought I'd bring this back up because we have them in NJ too.
Here are the pics.
http://web.mac.com/rwolfert/NJ_Nature_Notes_Website/Sightings_%26_Reports.html
Meant to say this was posted in the listserv I signed up for.
This message was edited Sep 21, 2008 5:31 AM
Nice pictures on the site. I've never seen a nest in a tree before -- always in lights or microwave towers. They come regularly to my feeders still -- they seem to know when I fill it. They even squawk at me when I get home from work. I haven't taken any good pictures lately but will post when I get a worthy one.
What beautiful birds. I've never seen or heard of these before.
ditto ducbucln, tell and show more. lee
Here's some more backyard pictures -- got a new birdfeeder since the old one didn't survive the process of stowing potential flying objects prior to Hurricane Gustav. The monk parrots (or quaker parrots/parakeets) are originally from Argentina I believe. According to the websites, they arrived in the 60s and have been sighted in various states -- TX, FL, LA, CA, NJ, IL and others. I heard of a nest of them near by house just after Hurricane Katrina and started getting them visiting my feeders about a year ago.
A good wild parrot website is http://www.cityparrots.org They've got an amazing bunch of pictures there and lots of articles.
This message was edited Sep 22, 2008 11:51 AM
This message was edited Sep 22, 2008 11:52 AM
Another interesting website is www.brooklynparrots.com - they've got a video called "the Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots". Great fun to see and gave me my most important skill in looking for monk parrots - the sound of their voices. I alway hear them out there before I see them since their green feathers make them very hard to find in a tree or bush full of green leaves.
One more parrot picture from the new feeder. They're really fun to watch - they travel in flocks talking one another -- I wished I could figure out the sex of the birds, but I can't. I see a group of 3 birds fly together a lot, then there is a larger flock. I've had as many as 30 birds in the backyard.
I went to all the places around southeast Houston this weekend where I usually see the monk's hanging out, and I cannot see or hear a single one. The nests they had in a tall metal tower across the street from Nasa are completely gone. I hope they come back!!! :(
They managed to survive two hurricane near misses here and their nests were intact. We had sustained winds of greater than 50mph for Ike - not sure about what we had for Gustav since I evacuated. Hopefully they'll return to the Houston area again. I read about places where the power company took down the nests and they returned anyway. I can only wish they have the sense to build nests in trees, rather than light installations and microwave towers.
Beautiful shots mrw! What a sight that must be. Thanks for the links.
I went to youtube and viewed 2 videos under The Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots and they were so nice!
This message was edited Sep 22, 2008 6:55 PM
yay, the parrots came back today! and with all the damage to trees around here, i can see them better!
They are very beautiful birds lovely colors.
Really glad to hear that the parrots returned to Clear Lake - they are accomplished builders and they'll have their nests back in no time.
Those monks really get around. We had them as far north as Connecticut. They are really beautiful, but seemed out of place in New England. I haven't seen any since we moved to sw Florida, where I would have expected them to be.
Although the monks survived close encounters with hurricane Ike and Gustav, recently I saw that all the nests in the Mike Miley playgrounds lights were gone. So my guess is that someone removed them - most likely nests, babies and all. Bad news for the local parrots. I still see several come daily to my feeder, so here's hoping that they'll find better nesting grounds. My hope is that they pick a very tall tree in my neighbors backyard -- seems ideal for them -- really tall which is what they seem to like, and good foliage.
They still have their nests intact on Veterans Blvd. by the radio shack.
I was sitting on my patio yesterday and about 5:30 PM I looked up and saw 2 large green birds fly over my backyard. They squawked as they flew over. They had to be Monk Parrots maybe attracted to my feeder. Never have seen them here before and we have been living out here for 25 years. I would imagine that they flew up from Metairie looking for new habitat. I was very pleasantly surprized by this visit. Hope to see more of them around. There are several tall palm trees in my subdivision and they my be looking at these for future nesting.
Keep us posted lite!
The big nest on David Drive in the microwave tower is still there. But my Mike Miley playground parrots are without a home now. I've read that taking down the parrot nests can have an opposite effect that is intended -- makes them breed more.
This message was edited Sep 30, 2008 7:17 AM
I would imagine that is very true, mrw31. These creatures can be very hard headed and determined. It's just their nature to be that way, I guess.
Christmas morning is a warm 70plus degrees here. And the feeder was full of fighting monk parrots today.
This message was edited Dec 25, 2008 10:44 AM
Didn't attach the pictures of the combatants. Here they are.
Here's another.
More fighting parrots
And a morning dove - the bystander before the fight started.
This message was edited Dec 25, 2008 10:49 AM
Such a cool sight!
Neat looking birds!
great capture mrw.
