Why Plans to Move Austin's Monk Parakeets Could Get Nest-y

[TexasTowelie]

Monk Parakeets are known for the bright colors, charisma and loud voices.
Credit Ferran Pestana/Creative Commons

Austin’s well-known as the Live Music Capital of the World, but it’s also becoming known as a place that’s running out of room. There's one neighborhood in town where old-time residents are probably going to be moved out in order to make way for new development. And it’s ruffling some feathers.

We're talking, of course, about monk parakeets. In particular, the two hundred of them that live at the University of Texas at Austin Whitaker Intramural Fields, in Central Austin on Guadalupe. Head there at dusk, and you'll see not just soccer or lacrosse scrimmages, but you'll see hundreds, if not thousands, of birds.

And the most colorful and charismatic of them are the monk parakeets. But soon they're likely going to have to move out of their longtime home.

Like a lot of people living in town, the monk parakeets of the Intramural Fields aren't native Austinites. They built nests in the light poles of the fields decades ago, and haven't left since.

Read more: http://kut.org/post/why-plans-move-austins-monk-parakeets-could-get-nest-y

[shenmue]

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