The Monk Parakeets of Brooklyn are well-known, perhaps too well known. YourNabe tells the tale of a recent parrot poaching.
Story found via Gothamist.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Just think of it as invasive control
Frankly, I hate to see any bird caged, but Nick’s got a point there…
Disagree. The poaching and catching of birds is not good a good thing, because it is done by people who have no boundaries and no ethics. Talk to the birders of southern Florida. Many former Parrot roosting areas are now empty because of poachers. This year, they have been caught poaching Painted Buntings. Which means that when birders share information, even of backyard birds, it has to be done quietly and secretly. Or, not at all.
It’s not just Florida either. There have been cases of native songbirds being poached in New York City as well. To the extent that the parrots do need to be controlled it should be done humanely by professionals who are paid by the state.
@Donna & Carrie: I absolutely agree about the poaching part, and that there is no good to be found in poaching no matter what (bird) species is involved and where it occurs.
My comment was meant to emphasize the “control” part: I do think that all invasive or – more generally – all introduced species should be “controlled” in that they ought to be removed from the ecosystem they damage whenever possible – even if a damage hasn’t been found or defined yet.
However, I think control measures need to be done in a way that makes sense ecologically (e.g. poisoning Starlings in a single county or gassing Canada Geese only within NYC does NOT make sense ecologically, therefore the killings are unjustified) and has the highest ethical standards possible. And for the individual parrots, catching & caging surely is better than killing, if done responsibly by nature conservation authorities and NOT by poachers.