wild parrots in brooklyn

Who knew that there were wild parrots in Brooklyn? Yes, you read that correctly. Wild parrots. Apparently they've been flying around parts of B'lyn since the 1960's. Somehow they have managed to co-exist with all the power lines, people and cold weather for decades.

There's a website dedicated to them here. There are even Parrot Sighting Safaris for those who want to actually catch a glimpse of these colorful birds. (The next one is coming up on December 1.)The guy who runs the website, and gives the safaris (which are free) seems to be a huge parrot advocate, which is nice. I'm not sure about trudging around in the cold to see the parrots, but perhaps I'll luck out and see one on my own.

The Washington Post ran a story on the subject back in 2006. The link to it is here. Highlights from the article include where to spot them, that they live in herds (or flocks? whatever) of 50 to 60 birds, and that they've adapted quite well to Brooklyn's climes.

Further research has yielded intriguing tidbits about parrot poaching and suspicious activity by ConEdison, the local power company. Sketchy, sketchy! However, if you want to find out the scoop on these details, I suggest you do a little detective work yourself and type in 'Brooklyn parrots' at a search engine online.

Oh, and don't forget to Google image search them ... they're cute! And green!