Thing to see: quakers!

[Pajarita]

I was VERY surprised to see that watching quakers was number one on the list of things recommended for Mother's Day.... I did not even know they had walks for this. They have gone a long way from the time when the utilities companies routinely destroyed their nests to been a local attraction - what do you think made this happen for them?

http://www.northjersey.com/community-ne ... -1.1567837

[ParrotsForLife]

Well because they are beautiful animals and people visiting the country would like to see them so its basically a tourist attraction.

[Chantilly]

That is really cool! Perhaps the world is starting to see the things that we need to preserve
I love quakers, although my only experience with them is being swooped on by hormonal males and bitten on the head, they are beautiful birds and they deserve this sort of attention.

[Pajarita]

I agree with you, Brandon, in that becoming a tourist attraction must have had a lot to do with it. But I also think it's because so many people started protesting the way they were treated - there were demonstrations, petitions, etc against the utilities companies for destroying their nests and allowing the babies to die - they used to do it during the breeding season and the local people were pretty furious about it... I mean, even if you don't love birds, who wants to see a baby bird plummeting to the ground and dying on the street, right?

[Wolf]

I was also very much surprised to see that visiting the Quaker Parrots was on the list of thing to do, much less being listed as the number one thing to do. I am sure that the protests about the routine destruction of their nest had a lot to do with the change in both the power company's actions and many peoples outlook concerning them.

But for the purposes of conversation, not to express my point of view, at least entirely, I guess I will sort of play the devil's advocate. What do you do to maintain peoples electrical power as well as to prevent fires especially in urban areas when a bunch of birds attach their nests to a power transformer causing it to overload or to overheat setting the nest on fire. I mean no one wants to see and hear a bunch of baby birds being roasted alive and dropping to the ground in flaming balls of feathers to finish dying, screaming, or am I wrong in this?

And try to remember that these nest can grow to the size of a car because these birds build communal nests. They are the only parrots that build this type of nest, or even actually build a nest at all. It is also my understanding that their communal lifestyle extends to include their mating habits as well as the communal raising of their young, which are also unique to this species of parrots.

So what do you do? How do you address this type of problem in such a manner that is beneficial to both the humans and to the parrots?

[Pajarita]

As far as I know, the problem wasn't that the birds were getting electrocuted, it was that their nests were bringing down the wiring and creating local black-outs (which meant the electric company had to send a crew to make repairs more often than if the birds were not there). I don't think they have found a single solution to the problem yet but they have been trying different ones, including offering the birds a nearby alternative spot for their nests. Below, two good articles about this subject:

http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-news/bi ... tisan.aspx

http://ctquakers.com/alternatives.htm

[seagoatdeb]

In one of my facebook groups, a person posted that they had just moved and were informed tht Quakers were on a banned list and their parrot would be destroyed if anyone found out they had it.

[Wolf]

In some states here in the USA, Quaker parrots are considered to be an invasive species and are listed as agricultural pests. So I have made it a policy to advise members that when they get a Quaker parrot to check the legal status of Quakers in the state they live in as well as for any state that they consider moving to or traveling through with their Quakers. Here is a link to help with this:

http://qp-society.com/wildquakers/wildt ... llist.html

[Pajarita]

Yes, Seagoatdeb, that is the case in Pennsylvania, for example. If they find it, they gas it. Period. The biggest problem is not keeping it 'hidden', it's that you can't take them to the vet because, if you do, the vet would have to report it to the USDA or risk losing his/her license.