Nesting Wars

According to Miele, there are better ways to deal with the nests without harming the parakeets. One option is to create a barrier around areas where they would cause serious damage or putting platforms on the poles so that the birds could make their nests away from the transformers. Having lower wires is also a possible solution since the parakeets are capable of building nests in trees, but choose the electrical wires as an alternative when they are high up.

In Florida, people have managed to trap wild parakeets and return them to the pet trade, but Miele does not think they need to be removed from natural environments. "It's a natural process, so unless there is a hazard to human health, I prefer to let nature take its course," she says. When parakeets are kept in captivity they are not as healthy, nor as brightly-colored and vigorous, as when they're in nature.

Other conservationists are in favour of a more creative solution to the nesting problem: the "monk bunker". Designed by Marc Johnson from Connecticut, it's a free-standing polyvinyl chloride pipe that can be inserted into the ground and has a multi-chambered wooden box attached to it. Chicken wire and twigs are wrapped around the box which the birds can add to to make their nests. These structures can be installed on private properties for the birds to nest in, detracting them from the power lines. The first monk bunker was tested in the garden of Julie Cook, a woman who was arrested last December for protesting against the killing of the parakeets in Connecticut. It proved to be successful and many parakeets are now nesting there.

Photo courtesy of Steve Baldwin Monk bunkers in construction: these structures could be a good alternative for nesting parakeets.

Although they are not yet widely available to the public, monk bunkers are expected to be marketed soon on the web site monkbunkers.com. Steve Baldwin, a resident of Brooklyn and parakeet enthusiast, has already attended a grassroots session in his area to help build the nesting structures. He hopes to help Johnson develop an e-book that will be distributed free online about how to build a wild monk parrot nest. "We've proven there's a humane way of getting them off the electrical infrastructure. We have done what the scientific community has not" Baldwin says.

For more info:

BrooklynParrots.com: A Web Site About the Wild Parrots of Brooklyn
http://www.brooklynparrots.com/

Monk Parakeets at Brooklyn College
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/miele/fieldinv.htm