Mitred Parakeets

Long Beach is home to a large population of Mitred Parakeets. They are concentrated in the Belmont Heights area. Go to Belmont Brewing Company or the Von's down at Livingston and Ocean Boulevard pretty much any time and you'll see them. Well, probably you'll hear them squawking and screeching above you, and then when you look up to see what's making that racket, you'll see them, a bunch of medium-sized green parrots in the Mexican Fan Palms.  

And if you're like me, you'll start noticing them everywhere. You'll hear their squawking, look up, and see a small flock flying by.  Which I did last weekend right in front of my house. I happened to be out with my camera trying to get some pictures of Cedar Waxwings, and was able to get some pictures of the parrots, too.

From a distance, they look cumbersome in motion. Compared to other birds they have an awful lot of wing-flapping. When caught in still images, though, their gracefulness and symmetry really show.

Parrots aren't native to California, and theories abound about their specific origins - they escaped when a pet store burned, a truck smuggling them overturned on the 405 letting them loose - you get the idea.  Whatever the actual reason, they are descended from pet birds and are now pretty firmly established with decent-sized populations throughout L.A. 

They are sometimes called feral, but I think that term is not quite right. Feral means domesticated animals living a wild lifestyle. Even though we keep these parrots as pets, it's hard to think of them as domesticated. Trade in wild-caught parrots is a big problem. It's a problem because there isn't much difference between wild and pet parrots. The pets aren't that domesticated. Pigs, dogs, and cats have all been kept with people - and bred by people - for so long as to become domesticated. Parrots, not so much. The California Parrot Project uses the terms "naturalized population," and "free-flying parrots," both of which I think are better.

It's easy to see why they are such popular pets. They are extremely gregarious, naturally social (hence the constant squawking to stay in touch when they fly, eat, nest, play, etc.), and they're cute as a bug's ear.

They circled around my block a few times, landing long enough for me to get a couple of half-way decent pictures, then they took off.

Until photographing them, I didn't know what kind of parrot they were. I identified them by looking up "parakeets" in my trusty National Geographic Filed Guide to the Birds of Western North America and then Googling. That's where I found the California Parrot Project, which is pretty darn interesting. The speckled red around their faces gives these away as Mitred Parakeets (AKA Mitred Conure), and distinguishes them from Red-masked Parakeets (AKA Cherry-headed Conure), which have more solid red heads.  Red-masked Parakeets were made famous in the fantastic 2003 documentary, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.

Mitred Parakeets, photographed 2/18/2013 with Nikon and Sigma 500mm lens.