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Urban jungle meets the real thing with Big Apple

NEW YORK — It was a new twist on this city's familiar tale of friction between new immigrants and longtime locals: the battleground was an air conditioner far above the street, and the ruffled feathers of the opponents were real feathers.

When a gray pigeon touched down atop the Brooklyn high school's air conditioner and began strutting, squawks of protest came from an intricate nest of twigs squeezed beneath the metal box. Then a green shape darted out into the muggy summer air to tussle with the intruder.

After a brief skirmish, the standoff resumed, along with a screeching racket that begged the question: Can wild parrots talk with a Brooklyn accent?

While pigeons are a familiar city sight, it is less known that New York City is home year-round to a growing population of wild parrots who add bright flashes of green, yellow and blue to the urban jungle's shades of gray.

"There's something really magical about these birds being able to make it in what really is a place where they don't belong," said Steve Baldwin, who gives parrot tours and runs BrooklynParrots.com, a Web site that tells parrot tales, pinpoints nests and hawks merchandise like "Support Your Local Invasive Species" bumper stickers.

"If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere," Baldwin said.

And the birds, "monk" parrots native to South America, have indeed made it all over, living wild in more than a dozen U.S. states over the last three decades. The parrots, named for their gray hood-like heads, have cropped up in many regions, but have their biggest wild populations in the warmer climes of Florida and Texas.

While the parrots often have devoted and protective fans, they also have determined and aggravated enemies, usually power companies trying to cope with disruptions caused by nests built on utility poles and transmission lines. The conflict between bird and man is particularly intense in South Florida.

The typically 12-inch birds, also called monk parakeets and Quaker parrots, are often kept as pets and can learn to be accomplished talkers.

The parrots have unusual qualities that help them survive harsh winters outdoors in places like Chicago and New York, where they likely number in the hundreds.

The birds are not picky eaters, nibbling on bread scraps and various vegetation when it is warm and chowing down at backyard bird feeders in winter.

They also are the only parrot species to build nests, allowing them to huddle inside in rough weather. The nests are often elaborate, multi-room condos woven with separate chambers and entrances for bird families.

The 1960s pet trade brought tens of thousands of the birds to the United States, and many were released or escaped.

The government, viewing the feral parrots as an agricultural hazard, had limited success with an eradication campaign in the early 1970s, wiping them out in places like California. But pockets of parrots survived — and multiplied.

A group of 19 captive parrots were released in Austin, Texas in 1991, the most recent recorded instance of a released group large enough to create a self-sustaining colony, said Mattie Sue Athan, a Quaker parrot expert and co-author of "Parrots in the City."

It is illegal to own or sell the parrots in several states, which consider them dangerous pests and worry about the birds establishing a foothold.

Many parrot supporters say the fears are exaggerated. Some argue the parrots fill a niche left by the Carolina parakeet, which became extinct almost a century ago because of deforestation and hunting. Farmers considered them a pest, and their colorful feathers were prized for ladies' hats.

In the New York borough of Brooklyn, site of some of the earliest wild monk parrot sightings, their origins are the stuff of legend.

The most common theory is that a group of parrots destined for pet shops in the late 1960s made a break for it, escaping from broken crates at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The parrots worked their way south and in the 1970s settled on the campus of Brooklyn College, home to stable and warm nesting spots high atop powerful playing field lights. Over the years, they colonized surrounding neighborhoods, building nests on utility poles and in other nooks of the cityscape.

"It's one of the great natural mystery stories of New York," Baldwin said. "The parrots have a real will about them that wants to be free."

The Brooklyn parrots are beloved by many neighborhood residents and maintain a fragile truce with local utility Con Edison, which tries to leave them alone unless they disrupt service.

Baldwin, who photographed the unusual avian air conditioner rumble at Midwood High School, said most of the time the parrots even get along with the pigeons.

There is less parrot harmony to the south, where thousands of the birds building nests on electrical equipment have caused power outages, making them a nemesis of Florida Power and Light.

The utility company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars researching techniques to keep the birds away from equipment, including using scarecrows, repellents, noisemakers, lasers and parrot birth control, spokeswoman Pat Davis said.

She said the efforts have had "limited success and in some cases total failure. We've not come up with anything to keep them from building."

The utility has been forced to take down some nests and ship the birds to research centers or kill them using carbon dioxide gas, Davis said. She said the needs of people have to come first.

"It's sad for everyone when this happens," she said. "They're green, they're cute and they can make good pets."

There are up to 150,000 of the birds in South Florida and 1,500 documented nests on electrical equipment, Davis said. Some nests are 10 feet across and weigh hundreds of pounds.

Davis said state researchers estimate the parrot population, which is heading north into the Palm Beach area, doubles every five years. She said the parrots are expected to be seen in every state within two decades.

Advocates for the birds dispute that there will be a plague of parrots across the land.

"They are expanding their habitat, but it's happening in tiny little increments not leaps and bounds," Athan said, adding that these parrots are not migratory. "I question whether it is humane to kill an animal that can learn our language."

On the Web:

Brooklyn Parrots: www.brooklynparrots.com

Brooklyn College parrot study: academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/miele/MonkParakeets.htm

Florida Power and Light: www.fpl.com

Quaker Parrot site: www.quakerville.net

David Ho's e-mail address is dho(at)coxnews.com