The Wild Parrots of Whittier
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Flocks of wild parrots fly around many cities in Southern California. Even though I have lived in this area most of my life, I never knew it. Never saw them; never heard them. Not until I moved to this particular part of the city about a year and a half ago.
Actually, the beautful parrots have been flying wild around these parts since about the 1960's. Besides being beautiful, the wild parrots are the noisiest creatures. They swoop in and park themselves in nearby trees and squawk to each other. It is so loud, it's enough to wake the dead. It is certainly difficult to carry on a normal conversation.
I suppose their noise alone can determine whether one would love them or hate them. After all, it's not so great when they hover overhead and start squawking at dawn, when my alarm clock doesn't go off for another hour.
Be that as it may, I can't help but love these birds. So as far as I'm concerned, they can make as much noise as they want.
They are amazing and mesmerizing creatures, and I welcome them when they come to my neighborhood. I feel the need to drop everything and run outside to greet them and watch while they sit in my tree and speak their squawk-talk.
There are always a few stragglers, flying in pairs, trying to keep up with the rest of the group. My neighbor told me the pairs are mates, and that they mate for life. Yet another trait that serves to endear them to me.
According to the California Parrot Project, there are thirteen species of parrots in California, and their population occurred naturally. Contrary to a popular local story that the birds were set free by firefighters during a fire at a pet store.
The parrots are social birds, and their calls help them to keep track of each other while they sit and are hidden among leafy trees. They announce their comings and goings as they travel from tree to tree, neighborhood to neighborhood.
The parrots' presence tends to remind me that my home is a sanctuary even though it is located in the middle of concrete, buildings and highways. Despite our attempts to civilize and modernize our environment, we continue to be surrounded by nature and the animals who live with us. Thank goodness.
When I was young, I had a parrot in a cage. They are so much more beautiful when they are free.
Talkin' Squawk
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Comments
Thanks, Doghouse! I agree - very cool for them to be free. I love hearing them swing by overhead - even tho' they ARE noisy!
We have flocks of wild monk parakeets (also called quaker parrots) in Florida, as well as a few stray macaws, parrots, and cockatiels. Unfortunately, the smaller birds usually become food for some larger bird of prey. I have three cockatiels myself, but they are very safely kept under lock and key in an aviary on the back porch.
Thanks for your comment, Dafia - birds are SO beautiful...and I love to watch them. I keep a bird feeder full in my yard. I just wish we had more varieties where I live. I'd be outside all day just watching them!!
I cannot even imagine a sky full of parrots - I want to go there!
Hi Patty - a sky full, a tree full, and an ear full! They are great - I love it when they come!
Wow... I also live in Whittier near Beach and Whittier boulevards I have often seen but especially HEARD the parrots. It was last summer, while walking on Russel that I saw a flock of more than 50 parrots sitting on telephone wires squaking away. I am truly amazed to see them and every time I hear them I rush out to catch them in flight. Friends and family think I'm crazy but I do find them to be fascinating. Great to see someone else with the same appreciation for them as well.
Hi Victor - I am actually not too far from you! And - I am the same way! I run out every time the parrots come squawking and flying by. I love to see them fly overhead and then land in the neighborhood trees. They really ARE fascinating! I would love to see them up close.
Thanks so much for taking the time to write a comment!
Well folks, you are all in error. The parrots in the Los Angeles area, Pasadena, Alhambra, Whittier, Santa Monica etc were never natural here in coastal southern California. They were in fact brought here from south and central America and either released or escaped from illegal pet transport over international boundaries or pet stores. They are not part of the coastal southern California bird fauna and like other non-native birds, house sparrows European starlings, they need to be dispatched and eradicated. All birds of within the US are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act except for those taxa that are not native which include the parrots as well as other taxa.
Mr. Keeney... you are a big party pooper!
No one really has any idea how these parrots came to be here. I would venture to say they could have been part of the old Japanese Deer Village in Buena Park many years ago, or when Knott's Berry Farm was a quaint place to visit. Could have been escapees from a pet store... but to state that they were "either released or escaped from ILLEGAL (ooooh) pet transport" is just another theory.
Dear Ms Whittier Girl: Unfortunately, we do have direct evidence (aka knowledge) of how the various taxa of parrots came to be in the greater Los Angeles basin. All one has to do is read the literature, scientific or otherwise. As I did state in my previous comment, the only way these parrots came to be in the Los Angeles Basin was that they were transported here. They did not fly here on their own fro central and south America, hence they are migratory in their natural behavior. Kimball Garrett and Karen T. Mabb, Section of Vertebrates, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, state: “The increasing establishment of parrots in southern California, with populations now exceeding 2 500 individualism in the greater Los Angeles area alone suggests at impacts of these on natives species own food resources could becomes substantial. Although largely confined to highly modified urban and suburban habitats dominated by non-native flora, the several naturalized parrot taxa nevertheless may damage ornamental and commercial fruit trees and possibly compete with native bird species for food” (Western Birds 28:196-201, 1997). According to Karen T. Mabb of the California Parrot Project: “Many of the wild parrots are out there in the first place because their owners could not stand them and threw them out of the nearest window, despite the hundreds of dollars they spent on them. They are messy, noisy, and these wild parrots can carry many diseases and parasites. I also hear rumors of people cutting into nest cavities and taking chicks. The destruction of nest cavities for the purpose of harvesting chicks is one of the reasons parrot populations are in such peril in areas where they are endemic. Cutting open cavities affects the health of the tree and destroys the cavity FOREVER, rendering it useless for parrots and, more importantly, for native animal species”. http://www.natureali.org/parrot_project/suburban_j
I have at least 200 300 amazonas sleepin rt now on my front yard oak tree. every day they comeback. it takes 5-10 min to knock,aall 300 birds fall asleep at once.no mess just awsome birds.R.A
I love them... I get happy to see them, YES I know there noisy and some sunday mornings thats the last thing I want to hear. But overall its God's gift and there amazinging to watch. I would stop whatever I'm doing just to run out in the back yard to see them...I always puts a smile on my face. :)
pam
my name is Craig Walters and you probably know of me as i am a pssitologists who specialized in California parrots and i have written article for several online sites etc....so you know there is some idelogy that the wild parrots have come from pet stores due to bands on their thigh which is the lower part of their legs with id numbers etc but some do not have the band so there is also some talk of them escaping from owners. this to update people..there are 13 species now flying free in California with 5 genuses and over 10,000 individuals and not like Ally,Karen Mabb and others who concentrate on their regional parrots flocks. i concentrate on the whole state and it seems the parrots continue to breed in the wild and have established themselves in new territory. i can say territory as i have seen some rivarly between flocks and other native birds but not to the degree of being invasive, not quite yet!
The parrots are here to stay and like many immigrants in humans who come here for the so called milk and honey or the sweets of california, so have the parrots. i have calculated that by 2020 that we will have over 20,000 parrots in California and this is still far behind Florida's current population of 25,000.
so ya'll know there are some 90 species of psitticids in the United States so this is not just Florida and Caifornia we are talking about.
source is.. Field Guide to Birds Of North American @ 2008
Regardless of where they came from, Parrots are exciting to watch and hear.Reminds me when i visited my family in Sinaloa Mexico where they also exist in great numbers.
as climates get warmer we will see more and more escaped pet parrots starting to breed in the "wild" around towns
I was in Whittier visiting family today and I saw them! It was the coolest thing. I was at Jordan Rd and Whittier Blvd, and they were everywhere. I was born and raised in Whittier, but I don't remember them from the 80's.
Maybe I just wasn't paying attention. :)
In The Doghouse says:
15 months ago
I totally used to live in Arcadia... the birds were always there. They are really fascinating, but noisy to say the least! It is kind of cool that they are wild and free. Great idea to write about them.