Monk Parrots Find Freedom

Monk parakeet doing some construction work. Image by Johann SchumacherStaring at a parrot flying through the biting cold of Queens, it is easy to imagine its escape from the warmth of someone’s home, and just as easy to picture its brief future. But looks can be deceiving.

The monk or Quaker parrot (Myiopsitta monachus) has made a home in New York City for four or five decades now. Tropical green, with blue wing tips, monk parrots measure about 12 inches from beak to tail. They are natives of central and southern Argentina, where steamy summers are common and snowy winters have prepared them well for life in the five boroughs.

In New York City, the monk parrot has generated volumes of urban mythology. It is one of many animals reputed to have colonized the Northeast through broken shipping crates and other misadventures at Kennedy Airport, but its current presence in Belgium, Britain, Israel, Spain, Chicago, Cincinnati, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and of course New York City implies a less romantic explanation. Monk parrots were popular pets in the 1970s, easily trained and cooperative. So a global pandemic of smashed shipping crates is less likely than occasional releases — intentional and not. Though there may have been occasional shipping mishaps, pet owners are probably at least as responsible for this parrot’s spread.

Interestingly, monks are by no means the first colorful parrot to have graced North America’s skies. A New Yorker in the early 19th century would not have had to travel far to see Carolina parakeets (Conuropsis carolinensis), the only truly native parrot in North America. Now largely forgotten, these beautiful yellow-headed, red-cheeked birds were once regularly sighted throughout southern New York State.

The bird’s interest in our crops, and the millinery trade’s interest in its feathers, conspired against it. By the late 1800s the Carolina parakeet was rare, and like its better known contemporary, the passenger pigeon, it was extinct by the early years of the 20th century. All that remains of the bird today are one of John James Audubon’s most haunting engravings and some study skins.

Monk parrots have steadily extended their range into a Northeast devoid of the Carolina parakeet. They are the only parrots known to construct twig nests, and aside from the unmistakable sounds of parrot screeching, these sometimes huge structures are often the best indicator of the birds’ presence in a community.

They can be seen all across the city: In the Bronx they can be observed in Pelham Bay; in Manhattan, on the Upper West Side and occasionally in Central Park. They can also be found in eastern Queens in Howard Beach, throughout Staten Island, and most points in between.

One of the most compelling places to observe these birds is in Brooklyn. They can be seen on telephone poles in Gravesend, Marine Park and Midwood, often dangerously incorporating transformer boxes as nests’ central heating units. Greenwood Cemetery hosts one of the largest colonies in the city. The interwoven mass of twigs and birds turns the cemetery’s gothic main gate into a living sculpture. At 25th Street and Fifth Avenue, it houses dozens of parrots in all seasons.