Parrots in La-La Land Living Large

In Los Angeles, a robust population of an invasive species – the red-crowned parrot – is thriving. For once, the aliens are not a threat to native species; in fact, the LA parrots might end up saving their cousins in the wild, where these birds are threatened.

There are no parrot species native to the continental US, but at least nine species of parrot have found paradise in Los Angeles and environs, many thousands of birds that were introduced here – somehow – decades ago.

“There were like a million stories about how they got here,” Luke Tiller, president of the Pasadena Audubon Society, tells the Hill. “Like that there was a crate to LAX that they escaped from or that some were released during the L.A. riots. And there’s probably some element of truth to all of those stories. But there’s not one story that’s ‘the reason’ that they’re here.”

One of the species, the red-crowned parrot, is actually doing better in southern California as a species than in their native Mexico, where habitat loss and the pet trade have made life difficult for this large, colorful bird.

“The red-crowned parrot is actually listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as endangered, which essentially means that it’s at high risk of extinction in the wild,” Tiller said. “So they now think that there are probably more red-crowned parrots in Los Angeles than there are in its native range in Mexico.”

In a marvelous twist, the immigrant parrots in California could end up saving their cousins back home. Ornithologists are looking into repatriating some red-crowns in Mexico, where there’s been limited success with bolstering wild populations using birds raised in captivity. But it is believed that the LA urbanites would, ironically enough, do better in the wild than any incubator-hatched specimens.

Unlike so many other invasive species, the parrots in LA do not appear to be squeezing out native birds or causing any other ecological harm. Aside from the red-crowned parrot’s ear-piercing squawk, it is a benign species beloved by birders and other humans. Now, like many successful immigrants, these expats have a chance to give back to their ancestral homeland.

Photo credit: Amazornia