A couple of days ago, a parrot was spotted in a tree on Vanguard's campus mall. As crowds gathered to observe this unusual occurrence, there was much speculation as to its origins. The general consensus was that it had most likely escaped from an owner's cage somewhere and was simply lost. My curiosity piqued, however, I decided to look into the parrot quandary myself. As it turns out, parrots are actually fairly common residents of Orange County, though no one is quite sure why. One theory suggests that as a local pet store burned down, the panicked owner set the tropical birds free. They managed to thrive in the local climate and their population has grown exponentially since. Another theory posits that there was a more sinister cause involving an underground parrot smuggling ring. Why anyone would want to smuggle parrots is beyond me, but who knows? Whatever the case, the end result is that there are a variety of tropical parrots inhabiting areas like Fullerton, Santa Ana, and Orange. Keep your eyes open for 'em.
For more info:
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1177755.php
32 comments:
And if you like stories of California's wild parrot communities, you might enjoy this documentary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424565/
I grew up down in So Cal. I always understood that it was Lion Country Safari. When It went out of business they just let the Parrots go.
We have parrots that live in our condos green with yellow and red we also Have a band of very dark blue parrots that come every year they stay for around 10 days they are very loud and then they move on I live in anaheim off of katella between Euclid and Brookhurst in Heritage Village.
I saw a flock of red-crowned parrots at the shopping center at Culver and Irvine Center Drive in Irvine. Saw them first on 9/16 at about 6pm, then again on 9/24 about 6:30pm. they were flying between the Outback, the Bevmo and the 24Hr Fitness. Was shocked b/c I've been coming to this shopping center for three years on a regular basis and never saw them before.
Here in Pomona we got a herd of them lol
imagesofpomonabyren.blogspot.com
I live in Costa Mesa and we have about 15 green parrots who hang out in a tree right across the street from us every day.
today there were twenty or so green parrots in a eucalyptus tree at costa mesa golf course right by Home depot on Harbor
Now that the nuts on the carrotwood trees in the city parkways are "ripe", the parrots have flocked (no pun intended) back to Anaheim. Today we have about 25 of them hanging around the Westmont neighborhood ... in the trees, on the wires, and on the roofs. Very noisy, but fun to watch.
The story I have heard being raised in Santa Ana and now in Fullerton is.....There was a guy who raised and sold birds in Santa Ana near the river bed (before it was cemented) in the 1950's. The parrots were released by accident.
About 7:30 PM, 7-24-2010 you can see the Green parrots flock and fly northeast from Chapman and Ford and Richmond in (Towards Harbor)Fullerton. Probably a good 50 to each flock. Guess they breed well here. Wonder where they go during the day and sleep at night and what they eat?
i saw five green parrots flying above the shopping center at Culver and Irvine Center Drive on 8/2/2011. they rested on top of date palm trees, and ate those little nuts (I guess they are dates) from the date palms near PetCo. so beautiful.
There alot of these wild green parrots flying here in Fullerton and congregate on telephone wires. Last i saw them group together was on Valencia Dr near the DMV area but a dew weeks ago I did found one one the ground sick on the side walk on fornt of the McCoy Mills FORD dealer and took it home hoping to find a vet to take care of but unfortenatley it died wild my neighbor tried calling several vets that can take in exotic birds. Its was a beautiful bird and sad that it had to die.
you can sea the parrots early in the morning about 7am to 8am in anaheim on euclid st. between lincoln and ball.
I live in Woodbridge and we have 20 plus that hang out here. Mostly in the evening and early morning. Very cool to watch and most difficult to take a picture of. haha We have managed to snap a few pictures here and there. What is their food of choice that keeps them here?
There were about 20 just a while ago in Anaheim near East and Ball. Amazing sight !
I live in Orange near the Orange cicrcle and we see them every day! I used to run to the window when one was closeby so I could get a better look but now I'm used to having them around. They are lovely! I think it's interesting that noone seems to actually know where they came from. The case of the mysterious parrots. :-)
We see them all the time in Sunny Hills. Usually flying in paired flocks but maybe 10 total at a time. THEN, 3 weeks ago 6:30-7ish pm while at the park near Fullerton DMV we were amazed to see a flock of maybe 50 or more (right hun?) Hun says "easily" 50 parrots all flying and then landed in the trees above us-as if they owned the neighborhood!
Came back this evening hoping to find them again.
Yesterday we had a flock of between 85 and 100 greenies in the Tustin Foothill District (17th & Newport). There are small flocks of pairs more commonly in the 2 to 24 range in my neighborhood every day year-round but this congregation was a record breaker. Whether it's a recent population boom or colonies joining together occasionally for a jamboree, the flock sizes are definitely expanding. Beautiful.
Yesterday morning I saw a flock of parrots at the Muckenthaler Center. It was quite a sight. First one left the tree, then about 20 to 30 more followed heading across Malvern.
Ive lived in santa ana all my life and I always see those parrots flying around. I managed to catch one once.
If you think it is a wild story, your wrong! These parrots have been around sense 1979 when I lived down the street from Santa Ana Zoo. They sat on the roof of the grarages behind me and there was 12 of them then.Every morning four of them would talk pretty good and as they went down the line you counldn't understand the last of them. Well,I live once more in Santa Ana and there are hundreds of them now in the trees of French Park.
A Youtube Channel known as "Californiaflocks" was designed specifically for these birds. The different videos of over eleven species feature close ups and behavioral footage. All filmed throughout California.
Saw about twelve this morning on the corner of larkellen and evergreen in fullerton around 9:12 am
I woke up this morning to a beautiful bunch of them on my fence. At first I thought people where in my yard talking. But the words where not clear. But most just made loud noice. Once I realized they where parrots and saw the beautiful sight. I could only get up and stair.
In 1984 or 1985 my cousins dad released 8 green parrots cause of all the noise they made. At that time they lived in Palm and Batavia in the city of Orange. When I see the parrots I always assume those are from the ones he released.
Good post.
We saw a flock of about 50 Orange County Parrots in Huntington Park (L.A. County) off of Florence and Pacific, a few day ago.
I lived in costa mesa from 73’ to 84’ and saw no parrots.
I lived in orange county from 91’ to 95’ and saw no parrots.
I moved back to Costa Mesa in 12’ and would see a flock of about 20 green parrots every summer for a couple of weeks until about 3 years ago, now i see them all over orange county every 3-4 days at all times of the year. Cant miss the loud squawking they do.
I'm in anaheim hills off of camino grande. My back yard overlooks a canyon about 800' deep. Parrots make too damn much noise in the a.m. in the trees in my backyard so I shot and killed two about 2-3 years ago. Shot at another one about a week later and he took off. Haven't seen any since. Word must get around between them.
I lived in Anaheim near Disneyland in 1978 & there was a flock of them back then, the local people said that a woman had a breeding pair that escaped & the rest is history...before you knew it there were flocks in Santa Ana, couple more years they started to envelop all of orange county.
I was watching a webcam of trains at Fullerton Station and heard the familiar squchreech squchreeych.
They all need to be killed. They are an invasive animal( no matter how cute) and will slowly kill off native bird populations. Fact over feelings to protect the greater good.
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