Plenty of mystery surrounds Brooklyn’s monk parrots, and there is no shortage of theories. After my encounter I had, a website dedicated to documenting the birds. It’s run by Steve Baldwin, a writer and Brooklyn buff who for many years led free “wild parrot safari” tours. The likeliest explanation is that Green-Wood Cemetery’s parrots descend from birds that arrived at Kennedy Airport from South America around 1968. Destined for sale as pets, they were accidentally released. They migrated west from Queens into Brooklyn, where the parrots established a colony on a college campus and another at Green-Wood. The parrots are able to survive New York winters because they hail from Argentina, where winters can be harsh.
