Wild Parrots of Southern California: Red-Crowned Parrots

Wild Parrots of Southern California: Red-Crowned Parrots My Photos and Sightings of Parrots in Orange County Meet my noisy neighbors: wild Mexican red-crowned parrots living in Orange County!

In 2008, I noticed a flock of green parrots squawking in a park next door. They left in June, but a pair returned the next spring. When they returned yet again in 2010, I decided to learn more about them.

It turns out they're red-crowned parrots, aka Mexican green-cheeked parrots, a highly endangered species. Imported through the illegal exotic bird smuggling trade, escapees have formed feral parrot populations in California (as well as Texas and Florida).

The California Parrot Project asks for us to report parrot sightings (see link at bottom of page). I originally created this page to share photos, videos and information on my red-crowned parrots.

My Parrots Are Back - With a Kid? (May 2012) (May 2012) Sure enough, starting in February, they've been waking me up in the morning and stopping by at sunset to roost in eucalyptus trees, munch on coral trees or jacaranda trees.

At times last year I started seeing three, and now there's definitely three. I assume the third is junior.

Kids: "They're not pirates, they're parrots!"

The quality of this video isn't great, but I wanted to document their squawks and feeding behavior.

The kids playing in the park add lively commentary!

February 2013: New Parrot Sightings - Yep, they're back 1st Feb 2013: My noisy parrots have been gone all winter, but last week I started hearing them again at morning and sunset, as usual. However, this year, there are FOUR. It appears that junior has brought home a mate.

They hopped from sycamores (bare trees) to jacarandas to eucalyptus trees, irritated by me and other people watching them this evening (4:45 PM, around sunset).

Feb 2nd, 7AM: What brings my parrots back each year? Mystery solved! There's a few coral trees in the vicinity, and they've just started blooming. When the squawk chorus woke me up this morning at dawn, I came out to find Mr. and Mr. Parrot eating coral tree petals.

Junior (?) and spouse were about half a block away. I spotted them flying, also perching atop some very tall cyprus trees in a neighbor's yard. The two pairs were keeping in contact with squawks.

I also recorded a quick video (Feb 1st) to record their calls. I'm still trying to capture that odd rising beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep noise that they make occasionally: Best Wild Parrot Photos So Far

FINALLY got some photos of the parrots in better lighting. Some of these are from Feb 2013, some from May 2014.

They become restless and fly off if I watch them for very long, so I generally content myself with listening to them from afar instead of stepping outside to take pictures.

Green-Cheeked Parrot Photos/Videos By Others Well, that's quite enough of my own mediocre photos, eh? Below are some other people's better videos of these lovable parrots. The first video gives you a lovely view of this magnificent bird, while the second treats you to the dawn chorus.

Video: Red-Crowned Parrot Feeding - From parrots.org parrots.org provides a better video than I can of this species of parrot: Video: Red-Crowned Parrot Munching Jacarandas There's a lot of jacarandas in the park, and I've seen them munching flowers in past years.

Have you seen any feral parrots in California? Leave a note in my guestbook. Don't forget to report your sightings to the California Parrot Project!

NOTE: The Parrot Project warned me that we shouldn't post detailed sightings reports online.

Unfortunately, poachers may use them to capture the parrots and/or raid their nests for babies! Ugh. https://hubpages.com/animals/wild-parrots-california