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Parrots! In San Francisco!

This is a great story. I've seen these birds, and you eyes don't quite register what you're looking at. How a wild flock of parrots survives and grows in San Francisco is a total mystery. It's really cold here! These birds have lived through several hard freezes!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20762672/

Telegraph Hill Parrots Spotted On Peninsula

Updated: 7 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - The flock of cherry-headed conures made famous in the book and film "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" have been spotted 10 miles south of San Francisco.

Brisbane resident Ron Davis said the very loud red and green birds fly over his home and hang out briefly in his tree in the mornings.

He took 14 photos which you can see by clicking on the link below.

SLIDESHOW: New Images Of Parrots In Phaedra

"I run to the window to see them," he said. "I got a picture of a parrot sitting on one of the trees with a hummingbird looking at it."

Mark Bittner, author of the 2004 book, said the conures are the same colony he took care of from 1993 to 1999 while house-sitting on the east side of Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. His book, which chronicled those years, was followed by a documentary movie of the same name.

Every summer, the males expand their range as they continue to look for food for their chicks. They've never ventured out of San Francisco until this year, he said. Bittner estimates there are now 200 parrots in the flock.

"Clearly, it's the same guys," he said. "Obviously, they found something they like."

SLIDESHOW: Telegraph Hill's Wild Parrots

The birds are originally from Ecuador and Peru. Before 1993, people were able to import them legally into the United States where they sold for less than $100 each. The Telegraph Hill colony began with birds that escaped or were released.

Bittner said Brisbane residents should expect the birds back next summer.
 
I guess you San Franciscans can say:

"We'll always have parrots."
 
and also in the Long Beach area as well! they are everywhere!
 
There are some in CT and I think in Chicago too.
 
Some parrots are much more cold hardy than you may think. The cherry-headed conure ranges to subalpine areas in its native habitat. The Kea parrot is common on ski ranges in new Zealand, and Kakarikis are found on treeless frozen subantartic islands. The Carolina parakeet used to range up to south dakota before it went extinct. I understand there are Quaker parrot colonies in the Chicago area and scattered thought the east and Midwest
 
We have a number of flocks of Brazilian parrots here in Lauderdale. They roost in the palm trees on the beach.
They are NOISY!
 
You'll see a lot of feral Quaker Parrots (Monk Parakeets) in areas around the country. I saw a colony of them living in palm trees in New Orleans post-Katrina, a colony living in Miami Beach (around Lincoln Rd.) and I know there's colony in Brooklyn as well.

Will
 
I've been seeing that DVD in rental stores for years and still haven't watched it... looks to be good & interesting!

There used to be loose Parrots in Bayridge, BK. Dang things would squawk all the time and annoy the heck outta me!
 
  • #11
Awwwwww....that brings a tear to my eye. Its kind of like "Free Willy"! Those birds are free to fly as nature intended...not stuck in some cage. :D

I wish we had parrots here. They are beautiful. We have loud, raucus grackles and starlings.
 
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