Nov 18 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Gary Libow The Hartford Courant, Conn.

United Illuminating began this week destroying 103 nests on utility poles in a campaign to exterminate a large portion of Connecticut's monk parakeet population that it says is creating fire hazards and the potential for power outages.

Several hundred of the non-native parakeets in four municipalities will be killed by UI and the federal government by the time the $125,000 project is completed.

UI work crews Monday began the project in West Haven where 79 nests are located, primarily along the shoreline.

Utility workers poke holes in the nests to capture the birds and then dismantle the nests. Crews were out again Thursday night, at a time when the birds congregate in their home near electric transformers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture euthanizes the parakeets using carbon dioxide.

USDA spokeswoman Corey Slavitt stressed Thursday that the birds are being euthanized with measures approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The remains are being sent to wildlife service researchers for study, she said.

"We are doing this because it is a problem that can cause power outages and serious risks to public safety and health," Slavitt said. "We try to strike a balance between wildlife and people."

The green, gray and yellow parakeets are either embraced as exotic marvels or scorned as raucous intruders. The birds are descendants of South American pets-to-be that escaped captivity at a New York airport in the late 1960s.

After West Haven utility poles are rid of parakeet nests, crews will focus on seven nests in Milford, 10 in Stratford and seven in Bridgeport, UI spokesman Al Carbone said.

"We are going to do all of [the nests]," said Carbone, who estimates the project will take six weeks. "Any type of obstruction that is located on a piece of high voltage electronic equipment presents a serious safety risk."

The nests can be up to 4 feet in diameter and house 40 birds, he said.

UI, which said the parakeets cause about eight blackouts annually, has produced a flier aimed at educating state residents about the perils of monks.

If the birds aren't killed, they would begin rebuilding nests quickly on the utility poles, according to the statement, which seeks public "support and understanding."

Animal rights activists, such as Priscilla Feral of Friends of Animals, said they are outraged.

"This is a $125,000 senseless and immoral project," Feral said. "There is no crime that these lovely birds have committed that would warrant their senseless killing."