Monk Parakeets

Noisy, bright, squawking and quarrelsome, it’s me again. No, it’s the Monk Parakeets of Rome:

Monk Parakeet - Caffarella - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Aren’t they handsome?

I wonder what their natural predators are, because there seem to be precious few of them in Rome. I check and it appears that raptors, snakes, and white-eared opossum are their major predators in South America. The explosion of their population here is partly due to a local lack of white-eared opossum, then.

They are perfectly adapted to eating acorns. It’s slightly freakish to watch a bird with such agile feet. They’re more like hands. A white-eared opossum would be glad to have feet like this:

Monk Parakeet - Caffarella - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

This shot is just begging for a caption:

Monk Parakeet - Caffarella - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)
“Don’t look now but I think someone’s taking our photograph.”

Here are my previous adventures with them:

And finally, don’t they look beautiful?

Monk Parakeet - Caffarella - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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