Visiting Monks

  On Christmas Eve we had our first ever Monk Parrot visit.  A pair of them were perched in the white birch outside the kitchen window, eye-ing the birdfeeder.  As far as I know, they never came down to eat.  It’s an odd thing, to see green tropical birds living in the cold weather of New England…

I googled… The Monk Parakeet or Parrot is globally very common .   In Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, Monk Parakeets are regarded as major agricultural pests (as noted by Charles Darwin among others). Their population explosion in South American rural areas seems to be associated with the expansion of eucalyptus forestry for paper pulp production, which offers the bird the opportunity to build protected nests in artificial forests where there is small ecological competition from other species.

The Monk Parakeet is the only parrot that builds a stick nest, in a tree or on a man-made structure, rather than using a hole in a tree. This gregarious species often breeds colonially, building a single large nest with separate entrances for each pair. In the wild, the colonies can become quite large, with pairs occupying separate “apartments” in nests that can reach the size of a small automobile.
The lifespan of Monk Parakeets has been given as 15–20 years. Monk Parakeets are highly intelligent, social birds. Those kept as pets routinely develop large vocabularies. They are able to learn scores of words and phrases.

These pics below are not my images, but give a better idea of the bird and it’s nest.

Birds of a feather?….

 

24 thoughts on “Visiting Monks”

  2. How extraordinary! I love would love to see unusual birds at my feeder. I get the usual suspects, chickadees, juncos, sparrows, mourning doves, blue jays etc.This wee bird is beautiful!

  19. We have a pet monk parrot {although we were told it was called a Quaker parrot}. We were so surprised that they could live outside in the cold weather. I included a picture of Nina a couple of posts ago if you want to have a peek. She does talk quite a bit but mostly she screams, just like my girls!!

    XO,
    Jane

  20. We were visiting a relative near East Norwalk Connecticut a few years ago and were so surprised to see LOTS of them in trees near the water. They are beautiful. I do believe it was in the summer that we saw then though.

  22. That really is amazing! I don't think I've ever seen one! What a treat to see a pair! I hope they fly south and we see them here in FL! Enjoy your week! Happy holidays my friend! ♥♥♥

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