Friday, October 24, 2008

Urban parrots














image via

I lived in two areas of New Orleans that had wild Quaker parrots all over the place. When I lived in Gentilly, we had them in the palm trees in our front yard. One of the people in the neighborhood told me that they had escaped from a pet store fire back in the '60s. Since Quaker parrots, aka Monk parakeets, originate in Argentina and are not migratory, it stands to reason that they escaped from captivity of some sort. They thrive there.

It seems that feral parrots are living in cities all over the world.

BrooklynParrots.com a website about the wild parrots of Brooklyn and other environs
Blake Pontchartrain on the wild Quaker parrots of New Orleans
and yes, they did survive Katrina
City Parrots Urban Parrot Conservation
The California Parrot Project

Independent Lens - The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (PBS) (clip)



The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

5 comments:

The Nag said...

I loved that movie! When I was in Barcelona this spring I was surprised to see colonies of parrots.

John M. said...

Now I really want to see it.

They seem to do pretty well for themselves in out cities.

cavalaxis said...

I heartily recommend the documentary. It's a beautiful, uplifting thing.

Anonymous said...

Alison Evans-Fragale and the Edgewater Parrots are proud to announce their movie debut !
Just released: The double-disc Collector’s Edition DVD of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is available at the Pelican Media web store, a few days early! (national release date: October 28th).
The DVD also features Steve Baldwin's classic tune, The Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots, as well as never before seen footage of wild Quaker parrots!
Get your copy today at:
http://www.pelicanmedia.org/store.htm
All proceeds benefit Pelican Media’s nonprofit environmental film work.

John M. said...

Thanks, all.

Hello, Cavalaxis what's shakin'?