Red-Crown Amazon; Wikimedia Commons
They squawk. They flock. They forage and roost in fruit and nut trees by the hundreds throughout the San Gabriel Valley. But the raucous Green Amazon parrots aren’t natives. So how did they get here?
Urban legends abound. One popular story is that an exotic bird smuggler overturned his truck a few decades ago. When his cages burst open, his illegal cargo escaped into the wilds of suburbia.
Others believe the birds descend from scores released from private aviaries by firefighters and wealthy Bel Air owners during that neighborhood’s disastrous 1961 fire.
Yet another account holds that the parrots somehow vamoosed from the now-defunct Busch Garden bird sanctuary, which closed down in the 1970s.
Then there’s the tale that former Rancho Santa Anita owner Elias “Lucky” Baldwin had a flock that he freed in present-day Arcadia about a century ago.
Oddly enough, any combination of the above stories might be true.
According to a Havasi Wildlife Foundation research article by Madison Most entitled “The Concrete Jungle,” no single event can account for the massive numbers of Amazons that have invaded the area. The birds must have winged their way back to nature in successive waves over the years:
Did numerous people keep these birds as pets and coincidentally, enough of them escaped and managed to find each other and procreate? To some degree, yes, but if that were the only source of these wild parrots the flocks would be much smaller and some would not even exist. Many people believe that a few large-scale release incidents contributed to the proliferation of these birds.
This seems supported by the fact that the Green Amazons come in different varieties — principally Red- and Yellow-Headed and Lilac-Crowned — with the reds being the most ubiquitous in the San Gabriel Valley.
The birds have spread their wings elsewhere too. Parts of the San Fernando Valley, Malibu, Fullerton and a few other communities also have droves of them. Still, they seem especially fond of Temple City, Arcadia and Pasadena. Ironically, the parrots are considered endangered in their native habitats but — like so many transplants — are happily thriving here in Southern California.
Experts say this is chiefly due to our region’s hospitable weather and rich horticulture. Thanks to our Mediterranean climate, we’ve been able to introduce and grow enough non-native fruit and nut trees over the decades for the tropical birds to feed on. In addition, writes Most, our palm trees, American sweet gums, Silver-leaf maples and Sycamores provide plenty of safe nesting sites.
In other words, whatever brought them here, they stay for the lifestyle.
