When you think of the borough of Edgewater, in Bergen County, you probably think of high-rise apartment buildings with sweeping views of the New York City skyline.
If you look a little closer, you’ll find something else that makes this urban community stand out. It’s home to a colony of wild parrots that are native to Argentina.
The Quaker, or Monk, parrots took up residence in Edgewater more 30 years ago. Just how they got there is up for debate. Some say it was through an accidental release in a New York City shipping yard. Others think they were escaped pets.
There are now about 200 Quaker parrots living in Edgewater and over the decades they have spread to Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield, Englewood and other nearby towns.
The birds are considered an invasive species, or agricultural pests, making it illegal in New Jersey and several other states to sell or own them.
Quaker parrots like to build their nests on utility poles because the equipment throws off heat, helping them to adapt to and survive in a foreign environment, experts say. Each nest can house 20-30 birds, locals say.
Their nests are one of the things that set Quaker parrots apart from other parakeets. They build intricate globe-shaped dwellings from twigs that have different rooms, or apartments. There’s a community room, a front porch from where the babies learn to fly and rooms for mothers to sit on their eggs.
Each pair of birds that shares the nest has its own entrance. And siblings pitch in to help with the young.
