Brooklyn Parrots Part I: They Make the (Washington) Post

[Brooklyn Parrot photo courtesy of brooklynparrots.com]

The Brooklyn Parrots have made the Washington Post and the story is still being picked up and run by other papers around the country like the News & Observer, which is where we found the story late yesterday. All of which goes to show that every loves an animal story, especially when the creatures in question are our cool Brooklyn Monk Parrots (which are still experiencing a vile poaching problem). Here are a couple of excerpts from the Post story, which is totally worth a read on its own because it's, well, delightful. (There's a word we don't get to use much without any sarcasm whatsoever.):

They are the wild parrots of Brooklyn, these emerald-feathered yakkers with the wisenheimer sense of humor. Thought to be long-ago escapees from a container at John F. Kennedy International Airport, their ranks replenished by unauthorized releases from pet shops, the parakeets -- originally from Argentina -- have become accomplished city dwellers. There is a parrot colony along the Hudson River cliffs in New Jersey and another bunch that prefers Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. Of late, two arrivistes have taken up residency on an apartment ledge on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

But mostly these are Brooklyn parrots, content in their adopted borough of 2.5 million people.

"They are successful Brooklynites, in that they are adaptable, eat a wide variety of foods and like to talk," says Eleanor Miele, a professor at Brooklyn College who lives in the Park Slope neighborhood and has found herself entranced by the parrots...Most Brooklyn parrots live in colonies of 50 or 60 birds, although a few less sociable types live on Coney Island or in Canarsie or Gravesend. They favor homes atop light and transmission poles; at Green-Wood Cemetery they inhabit the soaring gothic spires near the gate. Their nests are vast 400-pound constructs, with foyers and anterooms and a space where the females lay eggs and enjoy a respite from the males.

The story also notes how "state and federal wildlife-control officers" at first tried to exterminate the birds, which is just as reprehensible as the jerks who are stealing them, most likely for breeding purposes. For more about the Brooklyn Parrots, always check out brooklynparrots.com, which the authoritative source of info about our cool freakin' boyds.