Parrots Living Wild in American Cities

Red-crowned amazon in Palm Beach FLFrom San Francisco to South Florida, populations of nonnative parrots—some imperiled in their tropical homelands—are thriving in U.S. cities and suburbs

ON A STEAMY spring morning, Joe Barros and Paul Bithorn of the Tropical Audubon Society were driving around Miami with their windows down, listening for telltale squawks. Winding through golf courses, residential streets and downtown parks, the expert birders were searching for parrots, and they found them all over the city: yellow-chevroned parakeets crowding a backyard feeder, mitred parakeets preening in a melaleuca tree, a colorful flock of Amazons—lilac-crowned, yellow-headed and orange-winged parrots—on power lines, even a pair of blue-and-yellow macaws that flew into a nest in a dead royal palm. In all, Barros and Bithorn spotted 16 species of parrots before sundown, a number that would be difficult for a birder to top anywhere on the planet.

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Wild parrots, parakeets in the Valley show that ... Green is Gold

Green parakeet (Aratinga holochlora) Photo: Steve Sinclair

Wayne Bartholomew, executive director of Frontera Audubon in Weslaco, says visitors constantly ask him one question: "Where can I see the parrots and parakeets?

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Wild Parrots Tame the Concrete Jungle

Red-crowned Amazon (Amazona viridigenalis) in Ocean Beach, San DiegoSAN DIEGO, Southern California has a vast array of transplants lured by the moderate climate and endless days of sunshine, and perhaps none are more exotic than the urban parrots that have come to colonise bedroom communities ringing major cities like San Diego and Los Angeles.

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