Tough Parrots...

A tough-looking Brooklyn Parrot surveys his "Dust Bowl" home in Bay Ridge.

I'm continually amazed at how tough these parrots are, and once in a while, I come up with a photo that captures their inner resilence. This tough-looking monk parrot was spied in Bay Ridge, on Saturday, May 6th. With his back to the truck traffic spewing dark clouds of toxins into the air above the avenue, this tough guy has the blown-about, determined, damn-the-torpedos look of a seasoned Brooklynite who's endured his share of nicks, dents, cheap shots, and lost chances, but refuses to say Uncle.

This bird knows, because he's been around the block, that this life might not be much to write home about, but that it beats all available alternatives, and that although he and his wild pack of illegal avians doesn't really belong in Brooklyn, they'd belong a heckuva lot less somewhere else. So he takes his lumps, gets a laugh when he can, and makes the best of it.

For more on the Wild Parrots of Bay Ridge, see:

brooklynparrots.com/2006/01/squawking-at-moon-wild-parrots-of-bay.html
brooklynparrots.com/2005/09/photo-essay-wild-parrots-of-bay-ridge.html