Word has it that California's got parrots. As it turns out, Texas, Florida and (surprise!) Brooklyn all have populations of feral parrots, descended from escaped (or exiled) pet parrots from stores and households that could no longer control them.
My original interest was to play up the notorious loudness of parrot flocks as they congregate in early evening and wake up with equal din in the predawn light, then to speculate on means of removing the parrots.
In assessing the solutions with an eye toward snark, I discovered some things that aren't so funny: parrots are akin to canaries in regards to poisons in the food chain, and what kills parrots fastest are foods that Americans think of as healthy but in reality are among the most poisonous products in their grocery stores.
For as it turns out, per one source one of the deadliest human foods to parrots are strawberries...and per the same source, we might want to reconsider our love of the lovely red earth-berries, ourselves.
So, Just How Many Parrots Are We Talking About, and Where?
Per the Parrot Project, at least twelve hundred hang out in Pasadena.
The exact location of the parrot roost, where they sleep for the night, changes with the change in season. In the winter, parrots converge nightly on one roost location, easily numbering over 1200 individuals...
Where Are They Hanging Out?
Also from the Parrot Project:
..An especially interesting winter roost site is in a stand of Indian Laurel Fig (Ficus microcarpa) trees in the brightly-lit parking lot of a busy supermarket.
God help you if you come out the front door with a bag of fresh fruits and vegetables!
What It's Like? LOUD!!!!
As the residents of Pasadena, for starters, know all too well.
From Wikipedia:
There is a cycle of regular public outcry about the noise and the sheer oddity of the birds' presence, but most Pasadenans seem to have come to accept the birds as part of the city's life. They can be seen year-round, but are especially noticeable in the winter. The birds are definitely gregarious, and the amount of disturbance their chatter creates is definitely related to the time of day they may choose to chatter.
As for where these parrots come from, the same article provides an interesting anecdote:
A heavily accepted story by longtime residents of the area is that they were part of the stock at Simpson's Nursery on East Colorado Blvd. in the Lamanda Park area. The nursery was burned down in 1969, and the parrots were thereby released to forage in the lush Pasadena area. It is also possible that some parrots moved northward from their normal range in central and northern Mexico as human habitation in the Pasadena area created artificial habitat in which the parrots could survive. Among their favorite foods are the berry kernels of the cedar trees that grow in great abundance around Pasadena.
So, Why So Loud? And When?
Per this article from the Acguanacaste, in Costa Rica, we learn the facts of parrot loudness life -- parrots have as many reasons to talk as humans do. In fact, they depend greatly on their voices, for (here's a list derived from the text):
- Very loud contact called, used by specific pairs of birds summoning one another. Can you hear me now? Good? Can you hear me now? Good...
- Soft contact calls, given out autonomically, to give all members of the group an idea where every other member of the flock is located, even when moving blind (in the dark, in foliage, etc.)
- Preflight calls, to signal the flock to prepare for take-off. Fasten your seatbelts, and return all seats to an upright position...
- Warbling, motivation is unclear, thought to be breeding or nesting related, or perhaps assertion of presence or dominance, or perhaps undertaken for its own sake. Like listening to music, I suppose, only the birds generate their own. Or driving around with the car stereo blasting, windows down, demanding notice.
- Duets, warbling in pairs. Very coordinated, complex forms.
- Aggressive squawks when fighting.
- Begging calls.
- (Some species) serve notice that they've just got their groove on. I'm not kidding!
- Snoring. "Conures make a soft repetitive sound before becoming quiet at night."
As for when parrots get loud, we have a notion of that, too, leastwise, for parrots in Costa Rica: Parrots congregate in the late afternoon for the night roosting. This can take as long as ninety minutes, and the birds are loud the entire time, summoning all their friends. For the subsequent half-hour, the parrots move from a staging area out in the open to dense cover for the night, then fall silent...unless they up and decide they don't like the tree, in which case the parrots will light up with a squawk and suddenly move to another tree, then settle down after that.
It gets even better; parrots are early risers. All burst out of the trees and mill about for 15-20 minutes, sorting themselves into smaller foraging flocks, then spreading out across their domain.
This behavior emulates that of a flock observed on the island of Maui, which suggests the observations can be applied at least in part to the behavior of parrots elsewhere, including those of the San Gabriel valley.
What to do: Introduce predators?
Sure. Except that parrot species have a plan to deal with such threats.
First off, I was not aware of there being parrots in Brooklyn!
That said, check this out...
Within seconds after a sharp-eyed "lookout" sounded the general alarm call, all 25 or so of the foraging birds rose in flight. A smaller group of 12, perching in a nearby tree, joined the flocking parrots, and within less than 10 seconds, all had found safe harbor in nests housed in three of the large field lights.
The hawk, still visible in the Eastern sky, continued to cruise several hundred feet above the ground on its course, which I reckon was a straight line between Prospect Park and Jamaica Bay. The parrots stayed huddled in their airey fortresses for at least 10 minutes after the hawk's disappearance, but soon small groups of four birds each began to leave the nest to pursue their interrupted foraging. I would say it was at least 20 minutes before all the birds felt safe enough to reform the large group of foragers seen before the hawk's appearance.
What to Do About 'Em: I Suppose There's Always Poison...
Per one source on what to feed and not feed your pet parrot...
Avocado, chocolate, caffeine, heavily salted or greasy foods, alcohol and fruit pits. Many of these are toxic and can kill your bird.
So there you have it! If your community or neighborhood has a parrot problem, set out some guacamole, chocolate, coffee, peanuts, chicken fingers, and vodka shots near known roosts.
Of course, you will have to get a restaurant and bar permit in Los Angeles County to do this but, hey. I'm not the one with the parrot problem. :)
Okay, enough snark. And what comes next isn't funny at all.
Birds N Ways provides a discussion on the sensitivity of parrots to environmental toxins. While not canaries, parrots serve a similar function:
It is a well-known fact that parrots are especially sensitive to environmental toxins. Chemicals that normally are only irritating to humans and other animals can be acutely toxic to parrots. The inhalation of carbon monoxide exhaust or fumes from overheated Teflon products, which would cause no apparent damage to humans or other animals, can be fatal to parrots. Their immune systems constantly are challenged by air pollution, exposure to heavy metals, water contamination and the adulteration of their foods by pesticides. A shocking four million tons of pesticides, numbering 20,000 different products, are fogged into the air in the United States each year! We must control additional exposure of our birds to these products by not using any fumigants in their presence. Similarly we must educate ourselves as to the level of contamination of the foods that they consume.
As for what not to feed parrots, well, that's just it. Some of the items, the topmost in particular is the single most contaminated vegetable around:
The list being:
l. Strawberries
- Bell peppers (green and red)
- Spinach (tied with 2)
- U.S. grown cherries
- Peaches
- Mexican grown cantaloupe
- Celery
- Apples
- Apricots
- Green beans
- Chilean-grown grapes
- Cucumbers
The above list contains many of the foods that that we feed our parrots daily. Unfortunately, according to a study by the non-profit Environmental Working Group, they are the most toxic conventionally grown fruits and vegetables! This report, Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, is based on data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration studies. It found that more than half of the health risks associated with pesticides are concentrated in these twelve fruits and vegetables! Of the 42 fruits and vegetables tested, strawberries were by far the most toxic. They were given a toxicity score of 189 of a possible 200 points, far greater than bell peppers and spinach, which tied at a score of 155. U.S. grown cherries rated 154 and peaches 150. The least contaminated food in this group, cucumbers, scored a disturbing117 of 200 possible points.
And these items will slowly kill you and quickly kill parrots.
It's rather unsettling to think that the city of Pasadena could genocide its parrot problem by setting baskets of unwashed strawberries out for their loud, hook-beaked interlopers.
The karma being that, as is, under current mainline farming practices, those lovely red earth-berries are slow poison to Man and Woman as well.
Wrap
When I started to write this, I wanted to snark about what struck me as an amusing and off-beat topic.
As I wrote more, and learned more, I realized that this really isn't that funny a topic. The parrots did not ask to become Californians, but once in place they did what came naturally -- they did their best to survive. The problem is that for parrots -- and introduced species -- to flourish, resources that would have gone to native fauna no longer do so. And this on top of the ongoing destruction of habitat and native species thanks to the introduction of another species foreign to North America -- Humanity.
To conclude from the Parrot Project:
As beautiful and charming as parrots are, we must not let that cloud us into taking light the threat they pose. Should parrots move out of the city and invade wild land, such as sycamore and oak canyons, they could exert serious competitive pressure on native species. These native species populations already suffer under the pressure of increased urban- and suburbanization. As areas undergo this transformation into urban-sprawl, and as the trees in these neighborhoods grow into "mature forest", we can expect that it becomes more common to see free-flying parrots established in other city areas in addition to Los Angeles County, or even California.
No topping that.