First parrot sighting of the season!

I just heard, and then saw, a pair of the Brooklyn Parrots. This is my first sighting this season. They were flying down the adjacent road, just below rooftop level. I saw them as they passed between our two back neighbors' houses. They're easily identified. They are large (about the size of a blue jay), bright green, loud birds. Their flight is also distinctive: straight, strong, and fast.

Myiopsitta monachus, Monk Parakeets, have established numerous colonies in Brooklyn. They are Brooklyn's most charismatic potentially invasive species. They are also now established in over a dozen other states.

Monk Parakeets are the only parrot species which build their own nests, rather than nest in existing cavities. They create large, communal nests of twigs and other materials. This is one of the characteristics which enables them to adapt to our winters. That, and they like to build their nests around the transformers of power distribution towers.

Links (in alphabetical order by title):

• Brooklyn Parrots
• Feral Monk Parakeets (Quaker Parakeets) in North America
• Institute for Biological Invasions: Monk Parakeets
  
• Quaker Parakeet Society
  
• Wikipedia: Monk Parakeet