How There Came To Be Wild Parrot Flocks In The United States
In nature, parrots are primarily birds that are found in warm damp places, such as the Africa's Congo, the Amazon, and Central American jungles, these places are the natural habitat of .wild parrot flocks. Now that domestic parrots are becoming increasingly popular we are starting to see more wild parrot flocks in regions where we really shouldn't be finding them, such as cooler sections of the United States.
Wild Parrots in California
Los Angles is warm, and the air is tinged with the scent of the sea, and while the buildings and billboards might not be quiet the same as the Amazon forest several large wild parrot flocks are perfectly happy to call the city home. The types of birds making up California's wild parrot flocks include 2,000 red-capped Amazon parrots, and approximately 400 lilac capped Amazon parrots. While both of these breeds are decreasing in their native environment, in California the birds are thriving, their numbers are steadily increasing in size after each breeding season.
Concerns About The Wild Parrots
While California's wild parrot flocks have become a tourist attraction, they are also causing problems.
The first complaint about the wild parrot flocks that have taken up residency in California's cities is the noise. Every evening the birds squawk and cry as they return from a day of foraging. Once the parrots have settled in for the night the city is silent, at least it is until the sun starts to rise when the parrots take flight for the morning. The noise is enough to make people reconsider moving to areas of the city where the wild flocks of parrots routinely roost.
Another concern is that as the flocks of wild parrots continue to grow and increase in numbers more of the local birds will be forced out of the areas that they call home. Parrots are generally aggressive and many more submissive birds will not live in an area once a flock of wild parrots take over.
One of the biggest fears that many experts have about wild parrots isn't that they force some of the other birds out of their natural environments, but rather that the exotic birds will introduce a disease that the parrot itself is immune to, but one that will not only affect the native breeds of birds and kill them out, and if the disease is dramatic enough there is a slim chance that the native birds will be eradicated. In an attempt to prevent this type of disease from destroying the United States bird population, heavy restrictions have been imposed on the importation of wild parrots from other countries. Because of the restrictions more and more parrot breeders have been able to make a living with what once little more then an interesting hobby.
The Wild Bird Conservation Act, which no longer allowed people to import wild caught birds into the country, was passed in 1992.
