 Let's talk a little bit about why we have these birds in Southern California. There are about four legends, all of which I have personally heard myself when I moved to California. My favorite theory and the theory that I've heard the most. Hello my fellow sniffers, flighters and newbies. My name is Marlene McCohen and I want to welcome you to my channel. This right here is Leo and I have another special guest in the room today. Okay I will continue to scratch your head. So demanding. Our special guest is Blue. Blue may or may not make an appearance but she is right here on top of my light checking out everything that Leo is doing. So today as promised we have a very special subject for you. For those of you who don't have parrots, no need. This is a very interesting subject that if you love information I think you'll find this to be very interesting. And if you're curious about birds at all or just wondering whether or not we have wild parrots in the United States you have come to the right place today. Now before we go on I just want to cite a resource and really good article for you guys to read and I'll put the link below. But it's written by Sustainable Sue and the title of the article is Wild Parrots Multiplying in Southern California. So why I'm using this article as a resource and guidelines for you guys today is because I think it's written extremely well and extremely concise and so I think I couldn't do a better job myself so let's get into it. I promised you guys when you saw my video of me releasing that Amazon back into the wild. For those of you who watched the whole story there's an entire playlist on me finding the bird. For those of you who did watch the series I promised you a video on the difference between an invasive parrot or species in the wild and an introductory parrot or species. So getting right into it let's first discuss what is an introduced species into the wild. An introduced species is a non-native species introduced into a native environment either by humans or other means. An invasive species is essentially the same except it has become detrimental to the local or native environment in some way. There's many different ways that they can do that either by taking up resources causing harm or attacking the native species. As you guys know I've always been very interested in birds so much so that I had always been jealous of Australia and other continents and countries that get to watch beautiful flocks of parrots in their wild. I honestly was so jealous I couldn't believe it I was like what you get to see wild cockatoos why doesn't that happen to me? Well when I moved to California I was surprised to learn that California had some wild flocks of ringnecks. It was pretty amazing you could actually see them all over the valley it wasn't my first time seeing ringnecks in the wild I had actually went to high school in Israel and the joy of just seeing them fly around was just beautiful to me and it gave me a view in of how these birds were able to adapt to urban living which was very interesting to me. So then when I moved to California and found out yet again that the same birds also the ringnecks were thriving here also traveled the world and seen the same ringnecks in many other countries so I found it very fascinating and then through my studies I learned that they have notably been able to survive in many urban environments. Naturally I thought those were the only birds that you could probably find in Southern California but no come to find out that in Southern California we have over 11 species of wild parrots. Now if you haven't seen the documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill for those of you who love birds I think you will thoroughly enjoy that it's a really really good documentary give that a check out because then you'll get an eye into directly of that wild flock of parrots. So before we get into the conversation of if these birds are invasive to Southern California or considered an introduced species let's talk a little bit about why we have these birds in Southern California. Now some of these birds aren't actually too far from California some of them are actually from Mexico and other areas but according to legends and theories in Southern California these birds did not migrate and actually in her article she talks about how parrots are not actually known to do very far migrations at all. There are about four legends all of which I have personally heard myself when I moved to California not just about the wild flocks people just told me all these theories because they heard I love parrots and they wanted to tell me that there's parrots in California flying around but sustainable Sue she writes them out very nice and clearly so let's go over them. My favorite theory and the theory that I've heard the most there's well there's kind of like three theories that I've heard the most and there's no good reason for this to be my favorite because the story isn't beautiful by any means it just kind of always felt like the big story is that bush gardens and it was a tourist attraction in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles California and apparently they had to go through a company move so they tried to relocate all of these birds that they had I don't know if they were on display or if they collected them or they were just an attraction so basically when they did their company move they needed to re-home these parrots so they looked to local zoos or private homes but when they couldn't place all of these birds I mean guys it's so hard to just place one wow leo flew amazing it can be hard to just place one bird imagine entire groups of parrots right so when they couldn't do that successfully the legend has it that they let most of them go and fly free that's kind of a terrible thing in some way but it's kind of lent itself to the history of our wild parrots because if you probably analyze it a lot of them probably did not survive but the fact that a lot of them possibly did is pretty incredible in itself so another theory another theory that I heard so often here is that in Pasadena there was a nursery and they had tons of birds and there was a fire and actually in her article she specifies the name of the nursery which was simpson's garden town nursery and apparently there was a fire and the employee there who had already heard himself he didn't want any of the birds to die and didn't want to watch them die so he let go as many as he could basically lending itself to the wild flocks of possibly amazons in Pasadena which I guess would make sense another theory and this is why I like referring to the article because it specifies dates that for me this is all tall tales and legends because I'm new to California well I'm not new to California but I didn't grow up here so in her article she says that there were wild bird traders on their way to California and in the 40s and 50s they would get into accidents I don't know how often this was possible but they were wild caught and then the accidents would obviously lead to the release of all these wild parrots now which is kind of interesting because if they were wild caught birds that would completely explain why the birds are able to thrive and live in the wild today we're talking about wild caught birds so then we have parents that know how to teach the babies and they already know how to forage and so on so there could be a lot to this theory the fourth theory and legend that she states here is that in the 80s when importation of parrots became illegal a lot of importers when they didn't want to be caught and maybe they were about to or got some word they would let the birds loose and therefore also add to the wild flux of parrots that we see here today when ecologists want to test whether or not a species is invasive or introductory in both conditions obviously the birds because we're talking about birds would be non-native because they're not native to California but still we want to see if they're invasive or not right so there's five things that ecologists check for and you'll see why this makes complete sense so the first thing is whether or not the birds are competing for food water or nesting sites two carrying avian diseases that could likely spread to other native birds three preying on the local species and decreasing or destroying their populations four they would be growing rapidly because they have no predators because obviously in their new location they don't fit into the circle of like life and predatory behavior right so then they kind of like become such an abundance that they can just we'll get into that five preventing native birds from reproducing or possibly destroying their young therefore acting as a major predator to the life of our native birds so first let's look at the food aspect surprisingly enough here in southern California we have a lot of tropical non-native trees i don't specifically know if these trees were imported i guess they would have to be but basically it turns out that the environment in which a lot of these parrots come from so did the trees of california and our native birds do not feed on these trees at all first of all it's important to note that a lot of this article is cited with research from somebody named kimble garret who has studied the wild birds and what they eat and how they behave in california i'd love to do some more research and discover some of those findings but basically in the wild the parrots are eating magnolia figs dates olives pecans cherries kumquat things that are native birds are not eating because they're not parrots they eat walnut and cedar from the trees and sometimes they even eat bark from some of the trees even palm nuts and flowers which is why i kind of want you to go back to this article and see the more specific details on this because it's very interesting especially this section where she talks about the findings of kimble and the eating habits of parrots which i found fascinating and just to read one of them for you guys here it says the yellow-headed parrots only have three types of food they like to eat in the wild especially cashews wow how interesting i would love to know the two types of food besides cashews that they love to eat i in all my research have found a lack of information on specifically what each bird eats in the wild i know it's out there my personal opinion is that it's better to always read books than internet i feel like the internet is more like a recycling of article after article after article but if you read books it's people's life work that goes into it or an orthologist sometimes i can find some really good abstracts from some really great journals online but just one day i would love to travel all over and analyze these birds somewhat like an ornithologist and just really see what they are eating specifically like each and every bird i think it would be fascinating if you guys live in any local areas australia or you specifically know what you see the birds eating i'd love to know when i was in tailand i was talking to people about their local mustache parakeets and they were telling me how they love to eat corn which was so interesting because it was kind of a view in as to why my Picasso loved corn let's get to water okay so how do birds in the wild compete for water and do the parrots prevent access to our native birds water supply i don't know let's find out so where did the parrots get their water well i know where leo is trying to get his water right now literally from this water bottle a whole another kind of intelligence right leo but in southern california the amazons and by the way this is why i chose leo and her to be in this video because they're both kind of wild in california yeah you want water okay okay so you show them how real parrots drink water right oh spilling it on me beautiful leo but he got it he got it he got it so they also scoop up water from the telephone wires i'd like to see that personally but they like to suck out the juices from nectar flowers and tropical fruits and interestingly the milk from almonds i guess they are their own blender which if anyone could be a blender it would be this guy with his beak which brings us to nests how do parrots sleep in the wild have you guys ever wonder and do they take up the nests of our native birds well it turns out no they do not they do not build nests the way our native birds do and they do not kick our woodpeckers out of the holes of the tree basically parrots and their flock will occupy an entire tree and those of them that don't fit will be in a tree nearby which we totally witnessed in my video of releasing the wild amazon they were literally all on one tree and then a few on other trees oh my i should have got my long lens they nest inside larger holes of tree trunks telephone poles which i've seen multiple times and cliff sides man i'd love to be watching that so as far as competing for food and water supply in that area they do not qualify as invasive but let's look at other areas and see if they do indeed qualify the next thing is diseases do local parrots carry a lot of diseases okay this one can be very interesting because according to the article and the tests that have been done these parrots do not carry any diseases and when they've dropped feathers and they have been checked they haven't found anything more than mites and such although i have heard of a lot of the amazon's having ecoli which as you guys saw in the video this wild amazon did he had um had a problem flying and it hit the window the reason why he had that problem was because he was already uh i guess he got ecoli and he was already off balance because equal i will do that and probably now is a good time to explain to you guys something real quick i know a lot of you were like but he was so friendly there's no way that bird was wild i was friendly because he was sick once that bird recovered it it was completely untamed didn't know how to land on things the call was a wild bird call trust me you guys have been working with birds for years but back to them carrying diseases basically what she states here in the findings of this guy is that if the birds would have been carrying something that was detrimental or contagious to the other native birds then they would have already eradicated complete populations of our native birds and that just hasn't happened so as far as avian diseases making them invasive it has been deemed that they do not qualify as invasive the next thing is preying on our native birds do the parrots prey on them well the answer is that because of the abundance of tropical trees they do not prey on them truth be told i don't know if they would but it is also discovered through the research that they also did not pray or eat any insects so when he was doing his research on what the birds do eat he never found them eating any insects so therefore our parrots did not attack our little critter friends that are hanging out so not only are they not preying on the birds but they're also not competing for those birds food because they don't eat the same thing which moves us on to the next thing predators do our wild parrots have predators what an interesting factor in whether the parrots would be considered invasive or not so what this means is do the parrots have predators if they didn't have predators and they couldn't be killed off and they could multiply multiply multiply then it would completely throw off the ecosystem right so we might have too many of one kind of bird and then eventually they may be competing with our native birds for space area and food because there's just not enough room because they're able to multiply more than our native birds are more successfully but it is found in fact that our parrots in California do have predators many types of hawks as well as squirrels and rats and other rodents that do eat the birds eggs when they lay them and not only that our very own human predators so when they go and cut down trees they cut down trees that are holding the parents little eggs and babies so that is actually a threat to the parrots so because of that they haven't been able to multiply by the thousand so therefore in that case they also don't qualify as invasive now let's get on to our last point and check whether in this area the birds are invasive or introductory now we are looking at the reproduction of native birds do our wild parrots destroy the reproduction of our native birds do they go and take over the nest and destroy the eggs do they eat the eggs do they crack the eggs what do you guys think the answer is no our native birds are not threatened by parrots who might want to take their nests eggs or hatchlings in fact our parrots have their own things to do and they're not interested in doing that not just getting more scientifically said our parrots do not do anything of the sort given their lifestyle and the abundance of resources that we have here in california because of the imported trees and tropical plants our wild parrots have the ability to thrive on their own merit there you have it scientifically speaking when you're talking about invasive versus introductory ecologists like to look at those five facts and here in california they haven't really been qualified as invasive which i think is very interesting and amazing especially given that these birds are losing their habitats in so many areas so for them to be able to thrive here in different parts of california i think is absolutely incredible and is probably honestly a godsend to these birds and by the way it's a beautiful thing to see if any of you guys are interested there's many wild flocks all over california by the way i can make a video on this if you guys would like so let me know in the comments if you want me to but you should go check out the article and see the 11 species that she has cited are in different parts of california and where they're from interestingly enough in the opening of the article she states that there are so many different thriving flocks in california however none of them are australian because if any of the australian birds were able to adapt to our life here they in fact would be invasive so that's very interesting and good to know that that hasn't happened yet because one can ruin it for all right so be responsible with your birds guys and by the way the article closes with this very interesting fact that according to kimbell garrett they don't qualify as ecologically invasive because check this out they seem to be restricted to urban and suburban habitats i hope this was a very interesting video for you guys if not to learn about invasive versus invasive at least to learn the fact that there are so many different flocks of wild parents here in california which just proves that this is where i belong i would love to live in pass edina and wake up to the noise of the birds at five a.m it'd probably give me a much better schedule i would be very pleased to do so that is it as promised this is that video for you guys i love you guys so much don't forget to subscribe and help spread the word of engage not cage therefore engaging with and not caging your birds i encourage you guys to check out my feathered fun box it's a passion project for me to you basically to be able to share toys that my birds like with your birds but also to put a gift for the parent in there because when i was growing up there was nothing for birds and i just really wanted to grow up and change that not just nothing for birds but nothing for us humans that love birds there's no bird characters all i had when i was a kid was tweety not that that was bad that was beautiful but it's what i had and tweeth was engaged but also pretty caged so you guys are interested in knowing more about how to help your birds also check out marlene signature blend marlene signature blend is my choice of pellets with seed and nut mix formulated for your birds i did this along with tops parrot food it is organic and all-natural there's no sugars no peanut smash and just all-round really good for your birds now remember guys if you have tried it or you are trying it it takes time to get your birds adapted all right guys i love you so much if you guys are interested in supporting me and my work of bringing these kinds of videos to you please check out my patreon see what you think you'll have a better direct access to me and i love to get involved with you guys there blue you're so sweet i wish you would come in the video i love you guys so much this has been a very fun video for me bye