Natural Weekends – Parakeets And Starlings

Today’s photos highlight two invasive, highly intelligent, very social, and extremely talkative birds. Monk parakeets have been living wild up and down the Connecticut shore ever since the late 1960s or early 1970s. There are a number of unconfirmed theories about how these invasive birds got here ranging from a pet store that was closing releasing the birds, to a truck that was carrying the birds overturning on I-95 and the birds got free, to a crate of them being opened at Kennedy Airport allowing them to escape. In any case, they are here and live here all year round in the massive nests that they build in trees and, more dangerously, on power poles. Apparently, their extra body fat allows them to endure the Connecticut winters. Here are a couple of them with a morning dove looking on.

How many can you find in this picture?

Finally, starlings are also very social birds that usually gather by the dozens in certain trees and talk, talk, talk. They are also an invasive species who were introduced in North America in 1890 by the eccentric Eugene Schieffelin whose goal was to introduce every bird species mentioned by William Shakespeare into North America. Their range now extends from southern Canada to northern Mexico. Here’s one who is remarkably on his or her own.  It didn’t last long as at least four others joined shortly after.