'Testing the waters’ when forming new relationships

Monk parakeets don’t rush into friendships. They gradually escalate interactions, starting from safe, low-risk behaviours and moving toward more intimate acts only when trust is established

Five Monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), or 'Loro' to the locals, a widespread and common Chilean species, perch on a garden fountain in a suburban Santiago garden. Originally centred on the plains of Argentina, this species has become more widespread in South America and, through the pet-trade, managed to colonise parts of North America and Europe

In 1650 George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of friends, told a judge to "quake before the word of the Lord". ‘Quaker’ entered the lexicon as a derogatory nickname but Fox’s followers accepted it.

A species of South American parrot, first introduced to Science by the Comte de Buffon, bobs up and down. It ‘quakes’. Being relatively plain and ‘monkish’, the ‘quaker parrot’ is also known as the ‘monk parakeet’.