Chicago is probably the last place you'd expect to find a population of wild parrots. But they're there.
While the birds are native to South America, they've survived in Chicago since at least the 1960s. Locals have a number of theories (bordering on urban legends) about their origins:
- A University of Chicago experiment went awry and the birds escaped
- The birds escaped from a holding pen at O'Hare
- A truck on its way to a pet store overturned and let the parrots loose
- The government put them here
- etc.
According to University of Chicago ornithologist Dr. Stephen Pruett-Jones, however, the answer is straightforward: "They got here through the pet trade and the pet trade really peaked in the mid to late 1960s." How do the birds survive Chicago's harsh winters? Backyard bird feeders! (They also tend to build nests atop electrical transformers for warmth.)
You can read much more here, or check out WBIZ's podcast on the subject below:
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