Photo-Essay: Early Morning Wild Parrot Action at Green-Wood Cemetery

The weather is getting hot in Brooklyn, and one of the best way to beat the heat is to get out early while the air is still cool. So today at 7:15 AM I showed up at Green-Wood Cemetery to visit its resident parrots.

There was a lot of commotion around the big nest, and I immediately saw what was going on. A big crow was buzzing the nest, and his intent was to break in and eat some fresh eggs. There are lots of them (plus a lot of very young parrots) in the nest right now, and the parrots were doing their best to scare the crow off.


Suddenly a small grey bird leapt from the spire and began chasing the much larger crow. This bird was clearly not a parrot!


It was a mockingbird, and this bird meant business! Within about 15 seconds, he had chased the crow off.


"Hurrah for the mockingbird!" cheered the parrots. "We knew he could sing -- who knew he could fight?'"


The mockingbird, enjoying his new-found fame, launched into an extended song that included mocking the crow with "caw" sounds.


With the crow driven away, the parrots returned to their daily regime of nest renovations, using thorny twigs gathered by the grove of trees bordering the area where about the headstone markers for 1000 civil war era veterans have been placed. These markers will eventually be placed throughout the cemetery.


During the summer months, this grove is one of the best places to get photos of the parrots as they work.


If you're lucky, you might even catch a parrot paying his respects to a departed Civil War veteran. This marker is for George Mason, Pvt, Co C, 6 NY Infantry, 1830-1862, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Second Bull Run.





For more info on the Green-Wood Cemetery Parrots, please see:

Photo-Essay: Wild Parrots at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery Thriving in Springtime

The Greenwood Cemetery Parrots

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The New Boids in Town (Wild Baby Quakers Storm Brooklyn)