Editing Edgewater, New Jersey (section)

===Edgewater parrots===
[[File:Edgewater parrots1.JPG|thumb|left|Monk parakeets near Memorial Park]]
Edgewater is the home of a free-flying colony of [[monk parakeet]]s, also known as Quaker parrots, which are native to South America. These small, green parrots have lived in Edgewater since at least 1980 and were numbered at 200 to 230 in a 2008 article in ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="nyt">Holmberg, David. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/nyregion/new-jersey/07parrotsnj.html "Defending the Parrots of Edgewater"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 5, 2008. Accessed August 30, 2015.</ref> and about 200 in 2019.<ref name=Record2019/> They are easily seen in Memorial Park and its vicinity at River Road and Route 5. The parrots build large nests of twigs and down which become permanent residences.<ref>Hayes, Melissa. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304110216/http://www.northjersey.com/news/parrots-nests-cleared-from-power-sources-1.167943?page=all "Parrots' nests cleared from power sources"], ''[[The Record (North Jersey)|The Record]]'', April 7, 2012, backed up by the [[Internet Archive]] as of March 4, 2016. Accessed September 13, 2017.</ref> Nests four-feet long can be seen near the intersection. How the birds came to Edgewater is unknown, though a widely accepted story traces their origin to an escape from a damaged crate at [[John F. Kennedy Airport]] in the 1960s,<ref name="nyt"/> or alternatively they had been pets that escaped from their owners.<ref name=Record2019/>

The birds have built nests against transformers on utility poles. Citing the risk of fire, the utility PSE&G has destroyed such nests. This has brought the utility into conflict with parrot advocates. In 2008, PSE&G agreed not to take down nests during breeding season.<ref name="nyt"/><ref name=Record2019>Pries, Allison. [https://www.nj.com/bergen/2019/12/wild-parrots-escaped-into-this-nj-town-30-years-ago-and-they-never-left.html "Wild parrots escaped into this N.J. town 30 years ago and they never left"], NJ Advance Media for [[NJ.com]], December 1, 2019. Accessed December 1, 2019. "The Quaker, or Monk, parrots took up residence in Edgewater more 30 years ago. Just how they got there is up for debate. Some say it was through an accidental release in a New York City shipping yard. Others think they were escaped pets.... There are now about 200 Quaker parrots living in Edgewater and over the decades they have spread to Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield, Englewood and other nearby towns, Schotanus said."</ref>