No, this isn't about real estate development. It's about the wild parrots of Brooklyn and a report that someone is seriously messing with them. Turns out that poaching is suspected. Residents in Midwood tell the Daily News of "squawking" in the night and seeing someone with "a huge net on a 25-foot pole" snatching parrots from nests. Parrot flocks are also getting thinned in Marine Park and Dyker Heights.
There are especially large Monk Parrot colonies at Brooklyn College and Green-Wood Cemetery, which are somewhat protected, but the more wild flocks, well, those parrots are apparently headed for bird cages. The original birds that founded the flocks were either let loose by owners or escaped from a pet shipment in the 1970s. Wild parrots and, now, poaching. Fortunately, the Red Hook hens and roosters are thriving, though. Some of the things that make Brooklyn different.
· Poachers Netting Famed Parrots [NYDN]
· Bird-Napping in Midwood [Brooklyn Record]
· Brooklyn Parrot Blog [brooklynparrots.com]