Welcome to the Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College students have enjoyed a unique opportunity to study a colony of wild South American Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) that have established residence on campus and the nearby community. This growing population has survived their accidental introduction and continues to build their characteristic nests among the field lights and utility poles around the campus.

As graduate students working toward our Masters Degree in the Brooklyn College Science and Environmental School of Education we attempted to learn what we could about them through direct observation and Internet searches. It is our goal to share our findings, in order to promote a better understanding of the biology, behavior and environmental impact of this exotic species.

Wild Parrots Roaming Brooklyn ?

Next, the students assigned to our group were curious about their large stick nests. These of these rounded twig structures are located on campus, intertwined among electrical cables and equipment. The resident colony of Monk parakeets meticulously care for the nest, which may support many individual compartments.

The close proximity to the electrical equipment, we assumed that they depended on the heat radiating from these structures. From our initial library search we discovered that the monk parakeets native habitat of temperate South America , including Argentina, has a seasonal climate similar to New York (Levine, 321). Assuming that these electrical heat sources were beneficial, but not crucial to their survival and discouraged by our lack of ability to compare the temperatures of air outside and inside the nests, we switched the focus of our research toward a noninvasive census.

Hypothesis

We articulated our current project around the following question.

Does the number of nest openings correlate to the number of birds living in the nest? Since most species of birds have monogamous pair bonds with their mates (Kress, 52), we hypothesized that one male and one female would occupy each chamber. According to one source, Monk Parakeets nests have one mated pair to each chamber (Perrins, 271). The next step was to observe the nests on campus.

Materials

binoculars, video camera, watch, paper and pencil, field guides

map of Brooklyn College campus and neighborhood

Discussion of Early Problems

We modified our procedure as we noticed the need to better define our criteria. As we started, our group found that we were unclear about how to count the birds, for each had developed their own definition of what was "at" the nest. Some counted birds only inside the nest, while others included all the birds within at few feet from the nest. This inconsistent data was disregarded and after regrouping, we decided how to account for birds joining and leaving the nest. With this refined operational definition we were ready to start our new observation plan. We used binoculars and video cameras as visual aids.

Procedure