IDENTIFICATION: The Monk Parakeet is mostly green, with a gray throat and forehead, and a long, narrow tail. It appears dark in flight except for the grayish throat. Length: 28 cm.; weight: 90-140 g. 

VOICE: Loud, high-pitched shrieks. Audio 2 (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: City parks, gardens and farms.

HABITS: Travels in small noisy flocks. It feeds on palm nuts, fruits, grain, seeds, and some flowers, buds and insects. It is the only parrot species in the world that builds a huge, communal stick nest, with multiple chambers, rather than nest in tree holes. The male builds the nest in a tree, tower or even electrical power substation. A common location for nests in Puerto Rico is in the base of a coconut palmÆs leaves. The female lays 5-8 eggs per clutch and incubates them for about 24 days. The male feeds the female while she incubates, and helps feed the young. Chicks fledge at about six weeks of age.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: This common, introduced bird is considered an agricultural pest in its native South America. The Monk Parakeet is one of many parrots and parakeets that have escaped or been intentionally released in Puerto Rico. Although this particular species is common in its native land, many other species of parrots and parakeets are endangered in their native countries because of habitat destruction, or illegal capture and exportation. Many of these captured birds die in transit. Over 38 species of parrots and parakeets are endangered in the Americas, including the endemic Puerto Rican Parrot and several other parrots endemic to other Caribbean islands. A form of the Hispaniolan Parakeet (Aratinga chloroptera maugei) was thought to occur naturally on Mona Island and Puerto Rico, but became extinct in the 19^th Century.

RANGE: Native to southeastern Bolivia and Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina, but now introduced in many areas of North America and Europe. It is common between the Coast Guard base and El Morro in Old San Juan.

TAXONOMY: PSITTACIFORMES; PSITTACIDAE; Arinae

References

Arambur·, R., S. Calvo, M. E. Alzugaray, and A. Cicchino. 2003. Ectoparasitic load of Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus, Psittacidae) nestlings. Ornitol. Neotrop., 14:415-418.

Camacho Rodrφguez, M., J. Chabert Llompart, and M. L≤pez Flores. 1999. Guφa para la identificaci≤n de las aves ex≤ticas establecidas en Puerto Rico. Depto. de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, San Juan, PR.

del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. 1998. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 4. Sandgrouse to cuckoos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Eberhard, J. R. 1998. Breeding biology of the Monk Parakeet. Wilson Bull. 110(4):463-473.

Juniper, T. and M. Parr. 1998. Parrots: A guide to parrots of the world. Yale Univ. Press.

Pérez-Rivera, R. A. 1992. Feral exotic psittaciformes from Puerto Rico. Ornitología Caribeña 3:30-34.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A. and C. B. Kepler. 1992. Earliest records of the recently introduced avifauna of Puerto Rico. Ornitología Caribeña 3:20-29.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Spreyer, M.F. and E.H. Bucher. 1998. Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus). No. 322 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. (http://www.birdsofna.org/excerpts/monk.html).

Wright, T. F., C. A. Toft, E. Enkerlin-Hoeflich, J. Gonzalez-Elizondo, M. Albornoz, A. Rodrφguez-Ferraro, F. Rojas-Sußrez, V. Sanz, A. Trujillo, S. R. Beissinger, V. Berovides A., X. Gßlvez A., A. T. Brice, K. Joyner, J. Eberhard, J. Gilardi, S. E. Koenig, S. Stoleson, P. Martuscelli, J. M. Meyers, K. Renton, A. M. Rodrφguez, A. C. Sosa-Asanza, F. J. Vilella, and J. W. Wiley. 2001. Nest poaching in neotropical parrots. Conservation Biology 15(3):710-720.

http://www.arndt-verlag.com/conures.html

http://monkparakeet.com/

Monk Parakeet, Spanish text

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