It’s amazing how many African Grey Parrots you run into in Brooklyn. Hell, even our borough president Marty Markowitz is the proud owner of Beep, a five-and-a-half-year-old African Grey Parrot. There used to be a restaurant on Bedford called the Grey Parrot Cafe that has since shut down, but that hasn’t stopped these feisty grey birds from taking over the town.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of being around one of these birds, check out the Wikipedia entry on them and check out the videos of some of the celebrity greys like Alex and N’kisi–those birds are crazy smart! They are widely regarded as the most intelligent species of birds and praised for their superior cognitive abilities.

Well here in Brooklyn we have our very own celebrity African Grey. No, I’m not referred to the one that lives in my house, Maui, although he’s a celebrity around here and known for his fantastic Spanish speaking skills. Right now I’m talking about the one and only Finlay–the resident parrot from Crest Hardware on Metropolitan Ave in Williamsburg. Not only is it great to have a big neighborhood hardware store with good prices and friendly service, but it’s always fun to stop in and talk to the bird. On one occasion, when Crest was fairly packed, Finlay started making cell phone ringing noises and literally everyone in the store took out their phone to see if they were ringing. It was hysterical. And I swear I heard him laugh right afterwards. Hey’s quite the joker.

Well, now Crest has taken it upon themselves to give Finlay a phrase of the month. The post it on his cage and ask all the patrons to help him learn in. His first phrase? Well, it’s “Brooklyn in the House!” of course.

Related topic of interest: A website about the Wild Parrots of Brooklyn–who knew?