Don’t be alarmed if you see unexpected visitors at your bird feeder this spring. If you have been hearing loud noises emanating from the trees or flocks of brightly colored birds fluttering overhead, don’t worry, you aren’t crazy. Believe it or not, there are flocks of over a thousand South American parrots roaming wild in NYC and on Long Island.

By Ingrid Taylar from San Francisco Bay Area – California, USA [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
To this day the vast majority of wild parrots in NY are Quaker Parrots, a species native to many South American countries. Incredibly, they have been able to adapt to northern climates despite our harsh winters. This is due to a variety of factors. Of the roughly 350 species of parrots, the Quaker Parrot is the only one that lives in their nest on a daily basis year round. They construct enormous nests that serve as shelters during the harsh winters.

By Fernando [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

By Tony Austin [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
Check Out This CBS Video All About Parakeets On Long Island
Monk Parrots are unique in their ability to build free standing nests. As they adapt to life in New York, they frequently select telephone poles as places to settle down. The parrots especially favor transistors because of the heat they emit. In the winter, as all of the soggy wet twigs and branches of their nests freeze, the ice conducts an electric current straight through the transistor. This is a dangerous situation that can lead to fires, blackouts, and loss of service. Although the parrots are not a protected species, local electric companies have been accommodating of these birds. Workers have discovered that even if the entire nest is destroyed the parrots will often rebuild in the exact same location rather than moving their homes elsewhere. Instead of seeking to eradicate these birds, Con Edison is looking into methods of securing their phone lines and transistors in a way that will not permit the birds to cause damage.

By Ingrid Taylar [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons