Parrots better than beaches for tourism?

Photo by John Vanacore A member of the monk parakeet colony at Hammonasset State Park is shown here. Monks started moving into shoreline towns in the 1970s and have been flourishing ever since.
Someone's pet got loose. That's what you might have thought the first time you were close to the Sound and caught a glimpse of brilliant green flitting through the trees or across the road-someone's pet parrot got loose and, if it's not found soon, it'll never last the winter.
On Saturday, the state’s most notorious illegal pet bird species, the Quaker parrot, also called the monk parakeet, became legal.
Golden conure (Guaruba guarouba), photo: Steve Bailey
Did you know that President William McKinley had a parrot named “Washington Post?” The parrot trend has certainly persisted through time—there are more than 40 million kept as pets in the U.S. alone. While it makes sense that these intelligent and bejeweled animals would make excellent pets, it’s anything but sensible when the illegal animal trade threatens biodiversity and accelerates extinction.