Wild parrots in Chicago?

cheri1122 · Aug 5, 2006

I recently watched an interesting documentary about wild parrots on Telegraph Hill, in San Francisco, and it mentioned there are also flocks in Chicago. Online, I found the locations to be at Washington Park, and at Hyde Park. Has anyone ever seen these, or any other wild parrot flocks?

greg334 · Aug 5, 2006

There are a bunch here in my neighborhood. Just before I moved here, there was an old lady who released all of her birds (20 from what I heard)and every once in a while I have an african gray or someother odd looking multicolor parrot land on my deck and scare the h*ll out of my cats - never seen cats run sooooo fast form a bird. Haven't heard too much from them in the last month but they are still around.

I did have pick up in Georgia where they kept i think 10 large Macaws in the warehouse for some reason. It was odd trying to talk to the shipping clerk as one or a few of them started to squawk - could not hear a thing.

cheri1122 · Aug 5, 2006

Greg - thanks, now I'm giggling at the thought of cats running from birds that are bigger than they are!

:7

dhalltoyo · Aug 9, 2006

We have a Monk Parrot, commonly known as a Quaker. These are very hardy birds and they can adapt to cold climates. They can also damage crops if they colonize in a particular area; hence, it is a state law that their wings be clipped to prevent escape.

Now, as we all know, not everybody obeys the law so there are a lot of Monk Parrots living the wild. Manhattan has many of these colonies attached to the sides of buildings and poles. Pretty wild to look up and see 20-30 of these birds looking at you.