Nest-building behavior of Monk Parakeets and insights into potential mechanisms for reducing damage to utility poles

Abstract

The Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) commonly uses utility poles as a substrate for building large, bulky nests. These nests often cause fires and electric power outages, creating public safety risks and increasing liability and maintenance costs for electric companies. Previous research has focused on lethal methods and chemical contraception to prevent nesting on utility poles and electrical substations. However, implementation of lethal methods has led to public protests and lawsuits, while chemical contraception may affect other than the targeted species, and must be continually reapplied for effectiveness. One non-lethal alternative, nest removal, is costly and may not be a sustainable measure if Monk Parakeet populations continue to grow. In order to identify cost-effective non-lethal solutions to problems caused by Monk Parakeet nesting, we studied their behavior as they built nests on utility poles. Monk Parakeets initiate nests by attaching sticks at the intersection of the pole and electric lines. We found that parakeets use the electric lines exclusively to gain access to the intersection of lines and pole during nest initiation, and continue to use the lines intensively throughout construction. Monk Parakeets also have more difficulty attaching sticks during the early stages of nest construction than when the nest is nearing completion. These findings suggest that intervention during the earlier stages of nest building, by excluding Monk Parakeets from electric lines adjacent to poles, may be an effective, non-lethal method of reducing or eliminating parakeets nesting on, and damaging, utility poles.

La cotorra argentina (Myiopsitta monachus) en el Colegio de Postgraduados: ¿una especie invasiva?

“…Asimismo, se ha propuesto el control biológico por depredadores naturales (Rodríguez y Tiscornia 2005, Rodríguez et al 2011) o parási-tos específicos (Avery et al 2002). En cuanto a los métodos no letales, la eliminación de nidos es la más común a corto plazo (Avery et al 2002, Burgio et al 2014, Reed et al 2014, así como la aplicación de anticonceptivos (p. ej., diazacon ® ), aunque pueden afectar a otras especies que no son el blanco del manejo (Yoder et al 2005, Avery et al 2008.…”

“…La cotorra argentina en el Colegio de Postgraduados particularmente las de agente de daño agrícola -por su alimentación-y a la infraestructura eléctrica de las ciudades -ya que suelen construir nidos grandes y voluminosos en los transformadores eléctricos-(Burger y Gochfeld 2009, Woodward y Quinn 2011, Burgio et al 2014, Collar y Bonan 2016. Esta especie, originaria de la región subtropical y templada del sur de Sudamérica (al este de los Andes, desde Bolivia a la Patagonia), ha extendido considerablemente su área de distribución -primariamente a las zonas subtropicales y templadas de América del Norte, templada de Europa occidental y Asia-debido al comercio de mascotas (Woodward y Quinn 2011, Rodríguez-Pastor et al 2012.…”

Bird on the wire: Landscape planning considering costs and benefits for bird populations coexisting with power lines

“…Electrocution, contrarily to collision, is not only affecting bird populations, but is also producing considerable failures in power transmission, with logistical and economic implications for electricity companies (Burgio et al 2014;Maricato et al 2016). As a consequence, the implementation of costeffective mitigation measures (e.g., elevated perches, perching/nesting deterrents, and nest relocation) by electricity companies is already widespread in many developed countries (Tryjanowski et al 2009;Kaługa et al 2011;Maricato et al 2016).…”

Trees to towers shift: Power lines emerging as a novel habitat for birds in Gujranwala, Pakistan

“…While these power lines provide important nesting substrate to these bird species, they also make bird species more vulnerable to injuries and deaths by direct collision and electrocution [6], hence, threatening long-term survival of the species [7]. The economic losses have also been reported because of power outages and failure of electricity supply by electrocution and touching of nesting material [8,9]. Pakistan with rather higher rate of urbanization in the South Asian countries, with 36.4% of its population living in cities [10], is developing and expanding urban structures such as bridges, buildings and power supply lines even in rural areas of the country.…”