Leonia power outage caused by Quaker parrots, PSE&G says

Several colonies of brightly-colored Quaker Parrots, also known as Monk parakeets, have taken up residence in Bergen County towns along the Palisades. The tropical birds have flourished year-round in large nests built in treetops and utility poles. Image by Brandon Keim LEONIA — Nearly 500 customers were without power early Wednesday morning after a Quaker parrot nest caused a transformer to overheat, PSE&G officials said.

The bright green birds, also known as monk parakeets, are a common sight along the Palisades, and their large, globular nests sometimes cause problems for the company when they build them on utility poles.

The outage happened around 3 a.m. and crews restored power by 4:30 a.m., said Anette Hicks, a spokeswoman for the utility.

Edgewater parrots still going strong after 35 years Edgewater has been home to a colony of Quaker Parrots, or Monk Parakeets since the 1970's. The parrots are originally from South America and it is rumored that they moved in after mistakenly being released at JFK airport. There are movements by people in the Edgewater community to get the parrots off the state's dangerous species list because after 35 years it should be known if there will be a negative impact on the state. (Video by Andre Malok/The Star-Ledger)

"They removed the nest and the parakeet," she said. She did not know if the bird survived the ordeal.

The Quaker parrots have been flourishing in Leonia, Fort Lee and Edgewater and in surrounding towns for decades, but PSE&G obtains a permit twice a year to remove their nests from utility poles to prevent outages. Crews worked in March to remove nests from poles in the three towns.

This is the second such incident in recent months; a four-hour outage in December was also attributed to a monk parakeet nest.