Hello folks, greetings from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We have a situation that we need advice on.
Our facility is located in an industrial park surrounded by other industrial plants. We have bird feeders that
we have had at our location for several years, because we enjoy watching the varieties of wild birds that frequent the feeders. No one who works at our location is familiar with Parrots.

About a month ago, a Quaker Parrot showed up at our feeders. He visits our feeders several times each day, but he appears to be totally wild; it will squak and leave the area whenever humans approach. We have tried talking to the bird, but we've had no success in approaching him.

Questions for anyone who is willing to respond. Can the bird survive in the wild? Winters, at times, can be brutal in NC with mostly ice storms. Is there a way to capture the bird? We would love to catch him and turn him over to the NC Zoo or a sanctuary.

Help! Thanks in advance!

Hi, Welcome to the forum!!

I haven't heard of any quaker colonies in North Carolina (doesn't mean there aren't any) so I'm guessing he was released or escaped form somebody.

There are feral quaker colonies in places like Brooklyn New York, New Jersey and other places where the weather gets quite cold so he may have a pretty good chance of surviving there. My only concern there is that if he's spent his life in captivity, he might simply not know how to find the right kind of shelter.

I would feel better if you could capture him and take him to a shelter. The only way I can think of to do that is a "fall" box (i.e. box, stick and string). That would scare him pretty badly but at least he would be going to a place where he would be taken care of.

Hopefully, others will be along soon with better suggestions.

Best of luck and KUDOS for caring about the little guy.

In my opinion, he's a wild parrot and just leave him be. We have flocks of wild quakers in Chicago that winter there. They are very hardy and do well.
Also New York started it all supposedly, with the escape of quakers that were brought in my ship. and they do just fine.
By us and in NY they tend to build their very elaborate nests around electrical transformers for heat.

I agree with QPdad on this---hopefully you can find a way to capture him...most probably a bird that got out or was let out in the open....Good Luck....Please keep us informed with your attempts....

If he were once owned by someone he mind recognize a cage if you have one. Put it out with food in it. Dont know if you could get there quick enough to shut the door though.

I'm thinking the cage idea may work. I'd tie open maybe a feed dish or a smaller doorway that the bird can climb in but will be harder to fly out. Put some millet spray or apple slices (no seeds!) on the bottom and wait. If he recognizes a cage as home, maybe posessive of it, maybe he'll stay and you can grab him that way? Just my thoughts.

Lisa

Thanks for the responses everyone. It is very much appreciated. We are going to
try the cage idea because we have not spotted him on the ground over the past month.
He is a beautiful bird and we would sure love to catch him so that he will be safe.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of hawks that cover this territory from time to time, so
we feel it would be best to catch it.

We appreciate the ideas and we will keep you posted. Thanks again everyone!

if he seems wild and will not come to humans whose to say he isn't wild? there are quakers in other places such as Florida. i dont know...i would call your local wild life place and ask if other quakers have been sighted in colonies before i went taking him in. if he is wild, you will be doing more harm than good.

I am in Greensboro and never heard of a wild QP flock, I agree he may be an escapee. My "tame" QP would not go to anyone but me and hubbie, she does even like the kids. No sure if the Zoo in Asheboro would take her but maybe the local zoo at the Natural Science Center would thay have several large parrots. Please keep us posted.

Please keep us posted...and I'm sure someone in our forum may be interested in having the bird in case you can catch him......God bless