Why are there Mitred Parakeets in Los Angeles?
Recently I was in a Trader Joe's parking lot and I heard some loud birds that sounded unusual to me. I used the Merlin App and it says that they were Mitred Parakeets. They were high up in a palm tree, so I wasn't able to get a photo.
The mitred parakeet is It is native to Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. So, how did they end up in Los Angeles?
According to the Audubon Society, birds that escaped from captivity have established feral populations around Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.
Apparently, during the 1980s, tens of thousands of the birds were imported from South America to major hubs in the US such as New York, Miami and Los Angeles. Birds likely escaped from quarantine during this period, and may also have been released or escaped pets.
According to the California Bird Records Committee Watch List:
A moderately large resident population occurs in coastal Los Angeles and Orange Counties, with significant concentrations or winter roost sites in or near the cities of Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Temple City, and Orange. Each of these roosts consists of 50-250 birds, for a total population exceeding 1000 birds in the greater Los Angeles area. The species has been present in the Los Angeles area since at least 1980, and likely breeding by the late 1980s, with one confirmed breeding report during the Los Angeles County Breed Bird Atlas effort (1995-1999).
The birds I heard were loud, but not as loud as in the video below.