Monk Parakeets are one of the only parrot species whose members build colonies of stick nests-elaborate, multichambered structures that they maintain cooperatively. “I was told that near Colonia 2500 were killed in the course of one year.” “These parrots always live in flocks, and commit great ravages on the corn-fields,” he wrote in his journal. As early as 1839, Charles Darwin described this species as a major agricultural pest in South America. But you can get an idea of it with the Monk Parakeets. It's not always clear what makes a specific parrot species successful in habitats beyond their native ranges, Smith-Vidaurre explains. Native to South America, Monk Parakeets have made themselves at home in a number of U.S. They live in cities, feed on agricultural crops and in gardens, and nest in exotic trees and power lines. No, he said he could hear them outside his window-they're as common there as pigeons. She asked the scientist who sponsored her visit whether it would be a challenge to find the birds. When Smith-Vidaurre started her research on the origins and behavior of Monk Parakeets, she thought it was important to visit the birds in their native range, which extends across parts of central South America, including Argentina and Uruguay. The Brooklyn parrots' story begins in South America. “They're animals that are really social, and they live in cognitively complex social environments,” says Grace Smith-Vidaurre, a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University and the University of Cincinnati, who studies the birds. Because they're parrots, they're smart, adaptable, creative and loud. All are by-products of the pet trade and animal trafficking around the world. Each successful transplant has its own story: some are benign, others a threat to the local wildlife some are abundant in their home ranges, whereas others rely on cities as a refuge from extinction. Today at least 60 of the world's 380 or so parrot species have a breeding population in a country outside their natural geographical range. All around the world, parrots are taking over with a resounding SQUAWK!!! Parrots are present in all of Mexico's 10 largest cities, as well as Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome and Athens. Rosy-faced Lovebirds decorate the palm trees of Phoenix. Red-masked Parakeets live on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. Monk Parakeets and other species of parrots are in Chicago, Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. (Parrots and parakeets are part of the same family.) These birds maintain barrel-size stick nests not just at this cemetery but across the city. The urban cemetery hosts dozens of long-tailed, dove-size parrots, lime green with gray accents on their foreheads and chests, called Monk Parakeets. They're at the entryway, their binoculars trained on the spire atop its Gothic Revival arches. But many visiting wildlife lovers aren't interested in those native birds. Groundskeepers maintain the 478-acre historic landmark as an arboretum and habitat for more than 200 breeding and migratory bird species. At Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery the living get as much attention as the dead.
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