Wild Parrots on Campus: a photo essay

I took these photos in the last week of March, 2005, in Brooklyn. Enjoy - click on any image to see an enlarged view of it.


One parrot on the Brooklyn College campus toys with the soccer net, as another one lectures him on the finer points of foraging. The spire atop Roosevelt Hall is in the background.


The underside of one of the 75-foot tall field light poles. There are six of these storm-worthy poles arrayed around the field: an ideal place for year-round all-weather nests!


High-spirited athletics often occur in the afternoon, provided no "hawk" alarms are issued from the parrot's eagle-eyed lookouts.


Foraging begins in the morning and goes on all day.


Why forage? To gather food, nest building materials, and, of course, to "strut one's bad parrot self".


Plus the chance to enjoy a cool drink!


Foraging is an activity that the parrots share with their neighbors, the starlings...


...and, of course, New York's ubiquitous rock doves.


You can get close to the birds when they're on the ground.


But monk parrots never forget that they are "prey birds", meaning that one or more "lookouts" frequently scan the skies for predators such as Red-tailed Hawks.


ALARM! Red-tailed Hawk sighted overhead! The birds know they don't have much time to find shelter.


Fortunately, the well-constructed nests atop the light poles provide excellent protection against even the mightiest offspring of Pale Male and Lola!


After the hawk danger has passed, the birds enjoy perching on the half-height Cyclone fence parallelling Campus Drive.


The fence provides a nice spot for group photos and flock socializing.


A few hundred yards away from the parrots nesting on campus, you'll find the elaborate, beautifully engineered nests of Avenue I.


Monk Parrots never take a holiday from nest-building. It goes on constantly, and everybody pitches in.


Here, we see a happy pair of Avenue I denizens standing on their condo's "front porch". Are these parrots or parakeets? You decide (I think they're parrots)!