Posted: 5:46
PM, Mar 27, 2019
Updated: 10:02
PM, Apr 04, 2019
By: Mark
Saunders
SAN DIEGO
(KGTV) - Residents in many San Diego neighborhoods get a daily reminder of the
odd inhabitants that are not native to the area.
As the
sun rises over the region, the squawks can be heard. The wild parrots are awake.
While the
sight of emerald, red-headed birds has long been gold for local photographers,
what has remained a mystery to many is how they arrived in San Diego.
Parrot
origins
All of
the wild parrots in San Diego are birds or descendants of birds brought to the
area by people, according to Sarah Mansfield with SoCal Parrot, though some
have speculated they migrated from Mexico.
Mansfield
added the birds weren't released in the area just once.
"Whether
they were released intentionally or accidentally, several 'micro-releases'
happened over many years," Mansfield said. "There are five
established species of wild parrots in San Diego, and 13 species in Southern
California, so it definitely wasn't just a pair or two that got out long
ago."
It wasn't
illegal to buy wild-caught parrots until 1992, when the Wild Bird Conservation
Act was signed into law in order to ensure exotic bird species were not harmed
by international trade.
"The
birds that were released came from the wild and have remained wild since,"
she adds.
University
of San Diego professor Janel Ortiz, who started the San Diego Parrot Project to research the
parrots' eating habits and natural behaviors, says parrots may have been here
longer than we think.
"No
parrots are native to California; there has been evidence of the parrots being
here in the 1940s and weren't well documented until the 1960s," Ortiz
says.
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