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From: bob@delphi.uchicago.edu (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Indoor Antics
Message-ID: <1990Jul17.171630.22708@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 17 Jul 90 17:16:30 GMT
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In article <1990Jul16.183013.16942@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> plemmons@brain.mth.msu.edu (Steve Plemmons) writes:
>Can someone give me a good description of a monk parrot.  I don't think
>I have ever seen one.


I can give you a description from memory (more or less accurate):

Long-tailed mostly green parrot a bit larger than a morning dove.  The
head and upper breast are mostly gray, the underwings are all or
partially bright blue (not always visible);  there may be a small
patch of yellow somewhere on the bird, but if there is I don't exactly
remember where, which implies it is probably not too prominent.  They
make quite a lot of noise, screeching loudly in flight and while
perched.  They tend to appear in smallish flocks (maybe 3-12 birds),
feeding in trees or at bird feeders.  Their shape is distinctive in
flight (at least compared to other birds seen in Chicago), with
longish sickle-shaped wings, curving deeply backwards, and long thin
pointed tails.  They build a large communal nest, quite unlike the
nests of other birds nesting in Chicago;  the nest is probably seven
feet tall and four feet wide.  


I think there is an illustration in Peterson or the National
Geographic guide or both.