Amazon Jungle Parrots Find New Home
Yorkshire Post By Alexandra Wood
It’s a long way from the Amazon - and a lot colder - but a pair of parrots are thriving in the wild thousands of miles from their natural home.
The orange-winged amazons have set up home in the wall of St Mary’s Church in Cottingham, near Hull, and their noisy squawking is now waking the neighbours up in the morning.
Bob Carter, a keen amateur photographer, who is fascinated by urban wildlife spent an hour watching the birds flit in and out to their home.
He said: “It is absolutely fascinating that they are there at all. While I was there I was chatting to people who came by and they told me they have been there three or four months and that they are very noisy and woke them up in the mornings.
“Watching them through binoculars (you could tell) if they weren’t breeding they certainly will do. They look very settled.”
In the Amazon jungle, the birds move from tree to tree in large flocks using their powerful beaks to crack open ripe fruits and nuts.
In Cottingham in spring there may not be much of either, but they can eat also berries, flowers and young buds off trees.
Popular pets, which can live to 50 or even 60, with the right diet and no stress, they are known for being quite friendly but noisy - which may explain how they have ended up where they are.
Mr Carter, who lives in Hull, said: “My guess is that someone has bought them and thought what a great idea and then they have got too much for them and they have released them.
“If you go there and can’t see them I am sure you will hear them.”