Monk parakeet


The monk parakeet, also known as the monk parrot or Quaker parrot, is a species of true parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is a small to medium, bright-green parrot with a greyish breast and greenish-yellow abdomen. Its average lifespan is approximately 15 years. It originates from the temperate to subtropical areas of South America. Self-sustaining feral populations occur in many places, mainly in areas of similar climate in North America and Europe.

Taxonomy

The monk parakeet was described by French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle, which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Psittacus monachus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. As Buffon did not specify the origin of his specimen, in 1937 the American ornithologist James Peters assigned the type location as Montevideo, Uruguay. The monk parakeet is now placed in the genus Myiopsitta that was introduced by French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1854. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek mus, muos meaning "mouse" and the Neo-Latin psitta meaning "parrot", alluding to the mouse-grey face and underparts. The specific epithet monachus is Late Latin for "monk".
The monk parakeet is one of two species in the genus Myiopsitta, the other being the cliff parakeet. The latter was previously treated as a subspecies of the Monk Parakeet. Due to morphological and behavioural differences, and geographical dissimilarities, the International Ornithological Committee elevated the cliff parakeet to species status in 2015. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World followed suit in 2020 and the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society in late 2024. As of late 2024 the Clements taxonomy retains the cliff parakeet as a subspecies of the monk parakeet. The monk and cliff parakeets' elevational ranges apparently do not overlap, so they are thus entirely, but just barely, allopatric.
Three subspecies are recognized:
The subspecies' ranges meet in the general area of Paraguay, and there they are insufficiently delimited. The distinctness and delimitation of M. m. calita and M. m. cotorra especially require further study.

Description

The nominate subspecies of this parrot is long on average, with a wingspan, and weighs. Females tend to be 10–20% smaller, but can only be reliably sexed by DNA or feather testing. Monk parakeets display very subtle sexual dimorphism in the colouration of their crown and wing coverts, but this is not noticeable to the human eye. It has bright-green upperparts. The forehead and breast are pale grey with darker scalloping and the rest of the underparts are very light-green to yellow. The remiges are dark blue, and the tail is long and tapering. The bill is orange. The call is a loud and throaty chape or quak quaki quak-wi quarr, and screeches skveet.
Domestic breeds in colours other than the natural plumage have been produced. These include birds with white, blue, and yellow in place of green. As such colouration provides less camouflage, feral birds are usually of wild-type colouration.

Behaviour and ecology

The monk parakeet and the cliff parakeet are the only two parrot species outside some members of the African lovebirds that build nests. Monk and cliff parakeets are unique among even nesting parrots for their construction of large, external nests in trees or manmade structures instead of using tree cavities.
The monk parrot is a gregarious species which often breeds colonially, building a single large nest with separate entrances for each pair. It is not uncommon, however, for pairs or individuals to nest outside of colonies, especially during the breeding season. In the wild, the colonies can become quite large, with pairs occupying separate "apartments" in composite nests that can reach the size of a small automobile. These nests can attract many other tenants, including some which cohabit with the monk parakeets. These tenants include many other birds, such as pigeons, sparrows, American kestrels, and yellow-billed teal, but mammals like red squirrels may also occupy a nest.
Their 1–11 white eggs are incubated continuously by the female, during which time the male will provide her with food. Unusually for a parrot, monk parakeet pairs occasionally have helper individuals, often grown offspring, which assist with feeding the young.
Monk parakeets have an average lifespan in their natural environment of 6 years. However, birds in captivity can reach 10 – 20 years.
Monk parakeets probably have individual voice prints that allow them to recognize each other, independently from the used call type.
In both their native South America, as well as areas where they have been introduced, monk parakeets are among the most destructive birds for crops. Several countries have implemented measures to control the spread of feral populations; nest removal is a common practice in the United States, and the United Kingdom's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is planning to remove monk parakeet colonies, citing threats to infrastructure and potential crop damage.
Feral populations are often descended from very small founder populations. Being as social and intelligent as they are, monk parakeets develop some cultural traditions, namely vocal dialects that differ between groups. In populations descended from a large number of birds, a range of "dialects" exists. If the founder population is small, however, a process similar to genetic drift may occur if prominent founders vocalize in an unusual "dialect", with this particular way of vocalizing becoming established in the resulting feral colony. For example, no fewer than three different "dialects" occur among the feral monk parrots of the Milford, Connecticut, metropolitan area.

Native distribution

In its native range, the monk parakeet is very common. In Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, monk parakeets are regarded as major agricultural pests. Their population explosion in South American rural areas seems to be associated with the expansion of eucalyptus forestry for paper pulp production, which offers the bird the opportunity to build protected nests in artificial forests where ecological competition from other species is limited.

Invasive species

populations have been recorded in Europe, the Americas, North Africa, the Middle East, and East and Southeast Asia.
As one of the few temperate-zone parrots, the monk parakeet is able to survive cold climates. This is partly attributed to their habit of building nests on warm electrical equipment, which also can create serious fire risk.

Europe

It is estimated that monk parakeets in Spain account for more than 80% of Europe's feral population. As an invasive species, it harms local fauna such as pigeons and sparrows, as well as crops. Spain has outlawed the possession and trafficking of monk parakeets since 2013. Madrid had the greatest population of monk parakeets in Europe, with 10,800 as of June 2015, and the population in Barcelona was estimated at 5,000 in the same year. Between 2013 and 2021, the monk parakeet population in Seville increased from 1,200 to 6,300 individuals.
Other locations with documented populations include:
In Greece, monk parakeets have established breeding colonies in the National Garden, Athens.
In the United Kingdom, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced plans in 2011 to control them, countering the threat to infrastructure, crops, and native British wildlife by trapping and rehoming, removing nests, and shooting when necessary.
Groups of monk parakeets can be found in the Belgian capital city Brussels and its surrounding areas. They have been living in the wild at least since the 1970s.
Monk parakeet populations have previously been reported in Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Czechia, but have not survived; the relatively colder weather in these countries likely contributes to these failed invasions. Other populations in the UK, France, and the Netherlands have also similarly declined into extirpation.

Middle East

Populations have been documented in:
Populations have been documented in:
The species has in recent years expanded its range in Brazil, where a self-sustaining population occurs in the downtown area of Rio de Janeiro. Since this population occurs far from the bird's original range in Brazil – it was only found in the far south and southwest – it is most probably a consequence of escapees from the pet trade.