Brooklyn Parrots Revisited

Heard about the Brooklyn Parrots? No, the Cyclones haven't been renamed. Gowanus Lounge is talking about the parrot colonies around Brooklyn, with two of the biggest being at Green-Wood Cemetery and the Brooklyn College campus. A Brooklyn Life wrote about them a while back and a visit to Green-Wood in search of them.

There is also an entire blog about the Brooklyn parrots at BrooklynParrots.com. Briefly, the parrots are believed to have come from a shipment of birds that got loose at JFK in the late 1960s. Somehow, the birds survived around Jamaica Bay, and immigrated to Brooklyn, where they were first sighted at Brooklyn College in the early 1970s. Another theory has them escaping from a pet shop on Flatbush Avenue or an overturned truck. Over the years, other colonies established themselves in Green-Wood Cemetery, Marine Park, Bensenhurst and Bay Ridge. BrooklynParrots reports that the birds tried to establish a foothold in Manhattan's Central Park, but were driven off by the Parks Department. (Boo. Hiss.)

(The photo above shows a parrot eating pizza, which warms GL's heart in a totally, like, Brooklyn way.)

Check out a Google Maps-Brooklyn Parrots mashup, or if you want a guided tour, you can join a BrooklynParrots "safari" on July 1, or simply head out to Green-Wood Cemetery and stare at the big Gothic Main Gate.