This is the only major documentary I've seen about parrots in California, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. It's a 2004 documentary, and is available to stream on YouTube, and probably elsewhere. Telegraph Hill is in the northeast part of San Francisco, about 1/4 mile north of the financial district.
San Francisco. San Diego. Tustin. Santa Ana. Orange. Garden Grove. Studio City. Pasadena. Glendale. Belmont Shore area in Long Beach. If you're into animals and wildlife, you known parrots are largely known as jungle species. They are not native to California. But there are flocks of wild parrots living in all these areas in California, and probably several more. This is something I think most Californians aren't aware of. According to the California Parrot Project website, there are actually 13 species of parrots, several of them parakeets, that are now living wild in California, mostly Southern California. They have good photos and ID guides to identify the parrots, and a reporting link, if you want to report parrots you have actually seen.
My experience with parrots in California began more than 20 years ago. I was a furniture mover in 1997 or 1998, when we got a job moving a woman who lived in Tustin, in inland Orange County. I remember she lived just east of the 55 and 5 freeway interchange, on the edge of Santa Ana. As we were getting the truck nearly packed, she and her friends walked out. "Oh, the parrots are here," one of them said. "You have a parrot?" one of us asked, not fully understanding her. "No there's a flock of wild green parrots that live around here," she replied.
The women pointed to a nearby tree. As we looked, we realized that was where all the squawking was coming from, which we had largely ignored. "There are about 35 or 40 in the flock," our customer said, "they come around here pretty often." That was the first I heard of wild parrots living in Southern California. We watched them for a couple of minutes, then headed off in our truck.
To me parrots had always been one of those weird tropical jungle birds, seen only as pets, in zoos, or in wildlife documentaries on TV. So it was cool to stand there and see a flock of wild parrots in real life. They were green parrots, that's about all I could tell at the time.
A few years later, working as a taxi driver, I used to go see 2 or 3 movies a week in the afternoons, when the taxi business was dead, and it was hot sitting in my cab. In 2004, I saw the documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, about a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco. The clip above is from that doc. It was fascinating, and obviously, reminded me of the flock of parrots I had seen in Tustin a few years before. Yesterday, as I write this, as I was writing about the urban coyotes in L.A., the wild parrots came to mind. I looked up to see if there were any YouTube videos of the parrots. There are several videos about parrots on YouTube, and you can find places to stream the documentary. Mark Bittner, the man talking in the clip above, also has a book out, The Parrots of Telegraph Hill: a love story... with wings. (not a paid link). So there is quite a bit of documentation and written work about the wild parrots in San Francisco. The web says there are about 300 parrots in the Telegraph Hill area of San Francisco these days.
But there's much less documentation of the wild parrots in Southern California, and there are probably as many, or more in SoCal, in three or four main areas. I've personally seen wild parrots in Tustin, Santa Ana, Orange, and Garden Grove in Orange County, and the Studio City/North Hollywood area in The San Fernando Valley. Last year, while waiting for a bus at the Tustin Metrolink station, I saw about 60-80 parrots flyover, in small groups, heading towards the Santa Ana area to roost for the night, apparently. A woman there said that near the courthouse in downtown Santa Ana "There are hundreds" of of parrots," in the evenings.
One time in 2008, waiting at a bus stop by Santa Ana City College, at the corner 17th and Bristol streets, I saw maybe 30-40 or more parrots. But they weren't just chilling in the trees. They were fighting a similar number of crows over the fruit of these trees growing on the edge of 17th. Seriously, it was like a parrots versus crows gang fight. They were flying all over the place, challenging and nearly hitting each other mid air. I had both crows and parrots fly within a foot of my head during the melee. I finally backed away from the bus stop, it was so crazy. I've never seen anything like it, before or since.
I've also seen small groups, and a flock of about 22 parrots once, in the Studio City/Universal Studios area. I've seen them a handful of times over the last year or so, and they seemed to be going to trees near the Universal Studios Hilton and Sheraton hotels, right along the 101 freeway. Doing a bit of research for this post, I saw there are YouTube videos of wild parrots in the Pasadena and Glendale area, so those may be the parrots I've seen here in Studio City.
I also saw there are quite a few parrots living in the San Diego area, in videos and reports online. So that's at least four main groups of parrots, and probably more in those areas. A friend on Facebook just responded to this post, and said he's seen some in the Belmont Shores area, on the north end of Long Beach, as well. So that's wild parrots in San Francisco, Pasadena, Tustin/Santa Ana, Long Beach, and San Diego. These are all introduced species, which means that their living here may screw up the lives of endemic species of birds, and other animals and trees or plants. But they are here, in several different locations. If you like birds, wildlife, or parrots in general, here are a few videos to give you an idea of where to try and find them in person. Also, check out the California Parrot Project website, it has a ton more info, and great photos of all the known species in California.
Mark Bittner speaking at the San Francisco Public Library about the Telegraph Hill parrots
Mystery of the Pasadena Parrots
Why are there parrots in Southern California
How the wild parrots of San Diego arrived in America's finest city (news article/video)
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