My creature of the year award for 2015 goes to the neighborhood favorites — Brooklyn’s monk parakeets!
The monk parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus, is also called Quaker parrot or parakeet and a few other names.
There are colonies of them in Queens and Manhattan and elsewhere in New York City, but my favorite flock lives in the gothic revival spires of the gatehouse at Brooklyn’s famous Green-Wood Cemetery.
No one expects these birds: they’re noisy, they’re flashy, they’re big and green. Congratulations to Green-Wood’s monk parakeets for being among the coolest wildlife in the city.
Julie Feinstein
I am a Collection Manager at the American Museum of Natural History, an author, and a photographer. I live in New York City. I recently published my first popular science book, Field Guide to Urban Wildlife, an illustrated collection of natural history essays about common animals. I update my blog, Urban Wildlife Guide, every Sunday.
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