Pigeons and Parakeets

 

While on our trip to Brussels, we were walking to go have lunch with Claire’s mom at a Vietnamese restaurant called "The Sunflower" (super delicious). On the way we spotted dozens of bright green parakeets mingling among a flock of pigeons. Claire and her mom passed by as if it was no big deal seeing the bizarre mix of birds (they have been a common sight throughout Brussels for years now), but Jordan had to stop and take a picture of the scene.

Claire and Francoise say that there are two myths that surround the existence of these birds in the Belgian capital. 

• First legend: during the Universal Exhibition of 1958, there was a greenhouse in which the birds were living. After the exhibition was finished and while the greenhouse was being dismantled, the parakeets accidentally escaped and have been procreating all over the city ever since.

• Second legend: the parakeets were the subject of a scientific experiment and one day, a scientist had closed the cage but mistakenly left it unlatched. It didn't take the birds long to make their escape, flying out an open window. After the laboratory finally managed to recapture the birds, the population of Brussels had become accustomed to seeing parakeets out and about and mobilized to prevent further experiments on the birds, allowing them to live freely in the city.

Regardless of which story is true, one thing is certain: it's pretty dang weird seeing these birds flying around the city, chirping super loudly, and bossing the pigeons around like nobody's business.
 


One of their HUGE nests