Photo-Essay: Brooklyn's Sandlot Parrots

Two "Sandlot Boids" enjoy some grooming (male on left, female on right) at the ballfield.

Brooklyn has always loved baseball, and its sandlot baseball fields are legendary places where, on any Saturday and Sunday during the Spring and Summer, you can witness some unforgettable, unorganized ball. In November, the sandlot fields are quiet and almost melencholy places, unless you happen to notice the Quaker Parrots cheerfully strutting their wild parrot stuff. The parrots love the sandy grit of the fields, which helps them digest.

Nice uniforms, boys and girls!

(Note: I'd tell you exactly where this sandlot is but I don't want to tip off any poachers. E-mail me privately if you want further details.)


All, the joys of a Brooklyn sandlot baseball field in November! What's to enjoy? Well, parrots need a bit of "grit" to digest their food, and the sandlot has plenty of sandy grit to help them out.


By my count, the parrots at this particular sandlot number number five nesting pairs. This parrot, whose feathers look particularly fresh, appears to be a recent arrival (some of the other parrots look downright grungy by comparison, a fact that's not particularly strange, given the number of smoke-belching diesel trucks which pass by within a few yards of their nests.


As always, a watchful parrot is on "guard duty," guarding his fellows against threats. Like vigilant New Yorkers urged to "Say something if they see something," this parrot will issue a special alarm call to warn his fellows of any approaching danger.


These three strolling parrots might be too involved in grit-eating to notice an approach of a predator.


Fortunately, the ever-vigilant Sentinel Parrot raises the alarm instantly (in this case, the alarm was just a truck backfiring, causing the birds to flee. But the Quaker Parrots' Sentinel Alert System (TM) is a crucial defense which these wild parrots deploy against predators, both human and non-human, which stalk them in Brooklyn.