Wild Pizza-Eating Parrots Receiving More Attention From Scientists

Wild Parrots on Brooklyn's Bedford Avenue enjoying a slice of Brooklyn pizza.

I'm happy to say that at least one of my photos showing Brooklyn's wild Quaker Parrots eating pizza has been selected to appear in a forthcoming textbook on Urban Wildlife Issues. Apparently, the fact that Myiopsitta Monachus (AKA "Dem Green Boids") has successfully adapted to the availability of world-class pizza in both Brooklyn and New Jersey is being taken very seriously by evolutionary biologists.

I am delighted that this remarkable behavior is finally receiving the academic attention it deserves.


A wild New Jersey parrot competes with a local starling for a particularly choice crust of New Jersey-style pizza.

Video Clip: Wild Parrot Pizza Party!

This past Saturday, BrooklynParrots.com and EdgewaterParrots.com conducted a joint inspection tour of the impressive wild Quaker Parrot colony in Edgewater, New Jersey. Lots of great folks turned out, and I made a short video with highlights of this latest "wild parrot Safari." Like any good safari, it finished up with pizza (which the parrots love). We even had a special guest - a beautiful green Amazon parrot - who attended lunch with the gathered wild parrot enthusiasts.

New York 1 was on hand, and has posted a good article on its Website about the trip, and about the current effort to remove the Quaker Parrot from New Jersey's list of "potentially dangerous" species.

Like all of the video clips posted here, this video will be incorporated into our ongoing video documentary on wild Quaker Parrots in the U.S.A.

Field Notes: Wild New Jersey Parrots Crave Pizza

Two wild parrots in New Jersey inspect pizza distributed in their environment.

Wild Quaker Parrot watchers have long known that the parrots that live in Brooklyn have a passion for pizza. Would the same unusual craving affect the parrots living in New Jersey? To answer this question, pizza was distributed in Edgewater's Parrot Park by researchers from both the Brooklyn Parrot Society and EdgewaterParrots.com.

(Click on any photo for an enlarged view).


After the pizza was discovered, we noticed the same peculiar expression of bliss on the Jersey Parrots' faces that had been previously been observed in Brooklyn.


The presence of pizza attracts a local starling, who is clearly interested in the distributed treat.


A tug of war ensues between the starling and the parrot.


The starling is clearly not pleased that this monk parrot's grip on the slice was stronger than his. Fortunately, there is plenty of pizza to go around for both birds.


The pizza clearly had an energizing effect on the parrots.


On this December day, the extra nutrition provided by pizza clearly made these parrots' construction chores easier. Here, a strong monk installs a heavy piece of lumber in a pole nest undergoing renovations.


Coordinated construction operations conducted by the parrots can be witnessed throughout the day in Edgewater.


Watching these parrots wolf down the pizza made us hungry, so we went off and got some for ourselves.

A Nice Childrens Book About the Brooklyn Parrots

I'm very glad to report that Nancy S. Mure, a talented, Brooklyn-based writer, has written a charming childrens book about the Brooklyn Parrots called "The Pizza Man and the Parrots." Nancy herself has written a nice article describing her book, growing up in Brooklyn, and, of course, the green birds themselves. Nancy's light-hearted linkage of Brooklyn's famed pizza with Brooklyn's famed parrots is particularly appropriate, given how much the parrots enjoy pizza.

Brooklyn: Land of the Pizza-Eating Parrots!

Two wild parrots on Bedford Avenue enjoy some freshly-baked Brooklyn pizza.

I was walking down Brooklyn's Bedford Avenue on Friday when I heard a pronounced crunching sound coming from overhead. I looked up, and there in a tree was a pair of wild monk parrots sharing a slice of pizza.

"Eureka!" - I shouted, reaching for my trusty camera, cognizent that I was on the cusp of a new discovery that would forever enlighten scientists studying the fascinating species known as Myiopsitta Monachus. For while it has been known since Charles Darwin studied the monk parrot in the 1830's that the species is "omnivorous" (meaning that it will eat almost anything, as long as it tastes good), and that bagel-eating among New Jersey wild parrots has been demonstrated in the field (Evans-Fragale, 2004) no actual evidence of pizza-eating among wild parrots has, to my knowledge, existed in the formal literature, until now.

It stands to reason, however, that in a place like Brooklyn, where good pizzarias are as nearly numerous as parking meters, wild monk parrots would adapt to the practice of pizza-eating, and even the time-honored Brooklyn folk custom of discarding the uneaten part of one's pizza slice on the street to supply food for other needy life forms.


Like many Brooklynites on a budget, wild parrots in Brooklyn share slices when cash reserves are low.


The thick, glutenous crust of this pizza slice is no match for the monk parrot's sharp beak, honed to razor sharpness by months of cutting through tree branches.



Judging from this parrot's contented expression, pizza appears to have the same mood-altering properties in monk parrots that it has in people.



After eating through most of the slice, the parrots simply drop the remainder on the pavement below, honoring a time-honored Brooklyn tradition that is gratefully appreciated by other hungry species, such as this English sparrow.