I grew up in Ocean Beach, a little hippie-ish neighborhood right on the coast in San Diego. And so I grew up with wild parrots. They’re all over the place down there. They’re visually distinctive from the pigeons and gulls and pelicans that are native to the region. They’re loud - especially at sunrise and sunset. And they’re absent from most of the rest of San Diego - they certainly don’t venture more than a few miles inland.
The legend in OB, that I heard when I was little, was that at some point in decades past there had been a pet shop in the neighborhood that caught fire, and the owner and/or clerk decided to free the birds from their cages to save them, and that the parrots for some reason thrived in the Mediterranean climate of OB and became fruitful and multiplied. That almost certainly has to be false - there’s no way a couple parrots in a single store could have created a viable breeding population, and from what I’ve read, there are parrot colonies up and down the CA coastline, far beyond my little neck of the woods, which certainly aren’t native to the region and which would beggar belief if they all originated from a single incident.
Does anyone know if there’s ever been a study done into the origins of these birds?
There are wild populations of parrots all over the place. Telegraph Hill in San Francisco and my town, Santa Barbara come to mind. I’m pretty sure they are the result of released and/or escaped pets. No burned down pet store necessary.
Hell, in Carmel about 20 years ago I heard a cry and saw one of those Red Macaws sitting on a telephone line. That species isn’t listed on the above link but it sure looked at home.
And growing up in LA in the 70s we used to have a flock of some sort - I thought it might be peach-front conures at the time - that came through our backyard every now and again.
From your site, I’d say “Red-crowned Parrot (Amazona viridigenalis),” though IANAO. I’ve seen them as far inland as Clairemont, but more in Point Loma / Old Town.
Interesting that it’s not actually terribly far from the region they’re indigenous to.
I’ve seen similar parrots in West L.A., but several of those species look similar and I’m not as certain.
There are several species of parrot native to northern Mexico, so I’m not at all surprised to see them around this area. One good tropical storm in the Sea of Cortez and any number of birds could end up in Phoenix.
In the 70s & 80s there was a good-sized colony of them in the Arcadia / Monrovia / San Marino area of eastern LA county. There were many distinct flocks.
What species they were and how they got there was a mystery to everyone I talked to then. I have no idea when they arrived or whether they’re still going strong.
Note that parrots live a really long time*. So even if a male escaped and several years later a female escaped, a breeding pair could ensue.
*E.g., the Red-lored amazon has an average life span of 80 years. If you get one of these, it could outlive you. Many people can’t keep parrots for such a long time, so unfortunately they sometimes get released.
KPBS has a show about interesting stories in San Diego. Last week they has a show about the Parrots of OB (Ocean Beach). They interviewed park Ranger who tried to track down the origin of the parrot flock. He heard rumors of a pet shop that caught fire and bird were released. He went through news paper archives and could not find anything. There were a few more rumors like that but he did not find anything he could substantiate.
I grew up in Ocean Beach, too. My understanding is what gazpacho notes from the TV show: No one knows for sure.
However, it’s not true that they don’t venture inland. Last year I noticed a huge flock that roosts near the intersection of University and La Mesa Blvd. in La Mesa, which must be at least 10 miles inland.
I lived in Sierra Madre in that period, and saw many green parrots in the trees and on telephone wires. They were very loud as I recall. I assumed they originated from the nearby Arboretum in Arcadia, which had many exotic birds in residence.
I live in Austin where we have colonies of monk parakeets which are basically large green parrots. I took some pictures and posted them to my Flickr account. A day or so later, I was contacted by the City Parrots group who wanted to link my pictures. Apparently, there are large colonies of parrots living in cities.
