FW: [SBB] South Bay Parrots

["Kris Olson" <[[email protected]]>]

I am taking the liberty of forwarding an old note from Bill Bousman on local
parrots. 

Kimball Garrett, Los Angeles, has recently asked for sightings of two
particular species, which are in SF and not Santa Clara, but his message
piqued my interest in local parrots again: 

	"This year we are making a special push to get detailed information
on 	Yellow-chevroned and White-winged Parakeets. The most helpful thing
would be to report (by e-mail to me) specific sightings of Yellow-
chevroned and White-winged Parakeets (date, time, place, number of
birds of each species, etc.)."

[I have pasted in Kimball's report form and his email address at the very
bottom of this email.]

Other parrot sightings, per Kimball, can be reported at this web site:
http://natureali.org/parrot_project/Parrot_Project.html

I am sure that Bill Bousman/SBB would appreciate them too from Santa Clara
Co..


I have also added a few parrot sightings that people have reported in Santa
Clara to the bottom of Bill's message summarizing information that he has.

So cruise by Sunnyvale at evening roost time and report some sightings!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the locations sighted for viewing parrots in Santa Clara Co, from
all these messages:

[1] Las Palmas park in Sunnyvale near Hollenbeck Av.[Vivek Tiwari]

[2] Sunnyvale _Aratinga_ flock, roughly centered on St. Martin's (Mitered
Parakeets) {B. Bousman]  [Kris: I think this is the address--  590 Central
Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA  94086-6357]

[3] The Palo Alto flock, formerly centered on St. Marks on Colorado Street 
has included Mitered Parakeets, Red-masked Parakeets (_Aratinga 
erythrogenys), and Blue-crowned Parakeets (_Aratinga acuticaudata_). [B.
Bousman]

[4]  10/13/01, I happened to be in a slightly different part of Sunnyvale in
the evening and was treated to the remarkable sight of 3 groups of vocal
conures joining together to form a flock of 25 birds, which then headed off
towards the junction of Remington and Mary at 6:35pm, apparently heading to
an evening roost. [Mike Rogers]

[5] Barron's Park - Palo Alto - a jogger recently told me there is a large
flock in some park toward the "back" of Barron's Park [Kris]


Kris Olson, Menlo Park



-----Original Message-----
From: [[email protected]]
[mailto:[[email protected]]] On Behalf Of
[[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 8:26 AM
To: [[email protected]]
Cc: [[email protected]]
Subject: [SBB] South Bay Parrots

Folks:

      Our knowledge of parrot flocks in the South Bay, either of escaped 
or possibly naturalized birds, is abysmal.

      J. C. Phillips (Wild birds introduced or transplanted in North
America.U.S. Dept. Agric. Tech. Bull. 61. 1928) surveyed introduced species
in North America in the 1920s, but makes no mention of any parrots in
California.  J. L. Long (Introduced Birds of the World.  Universe Books, New
York. 1981) looked at introduced birds on all continents and, as with
Phillips, did not record any introduced parrots in California.  Kimball
Garrett, however, in his survey of naturalized parrots in southern
California (Western Birds 28:181-195)reports that Mitered Parakeets
(_Aratinga mitrata_) were seen in the Long Beach area as early as 1980.

      Locally, it is difficult to be certain of how many birds there are or 
what species.  Flocks of birds may form temporarily and then disperse.  New 
escapees may add to the flocks and, of course, older birds may be killed.
It presently appears that there is a Sunnyvale _Aratinga_ flock, roughly
centered on St. Martin's.  The groundskeeper there told Steve Rottenborn
that the birds had been there since about 1987 or so and had nested.  The
only birds identified there with certainty were Mitered Parakeets.  However,
there have been other parakeets in this flock, although their identification
was less certain (they were not Mitered).

      The Palo Alto flock, formerly centered on St. Marks on Colorado Street

has included Mitered Parakeets, Red-masked Parakeets (_Aratinga 
erythrogenys_), and Blue-crowned Parakeets (_Aratinga acuticaudata_).  As
with the Sunnyvale flock, there have been some other birds with this flock,
perhaps Finsch's or White-eyed Parakeets.  Nesting of the Mitered Parakeets
was observed from 8/23 to 9/27/1995 by Steve Rottenborn.  A local
parishioner told Steve that birds showed up here around 1989 right after a
severe freeze (I believe this was December 1990).

      Many of these birds are adults and still retain bands, indicating
their years of captivity.  These birds, with effort, can be identified, but
people should take care.  There are younger, unbanded birds, and
identification criteria to separate these birds, particularly considering
the possibility of hybrids needs to be worked out.  Our Los Angeleno friends
are working on this (where hybridization is going on).  The adult
Blue-crowned Parakeet is probably straightforward, but the Mitered and
Red-masked are similar and the juveniles may be very hard to
distinguish--much depends upon development of wing covert color, I believe,
although Tom Ryan may be able to clarify this.

      I am interested in all records of these birds.  However, "records" 
refers to a positive identification, the number, the location, and the date.

Please age these birds and report your adults and sub-adults.  Please also 
look for and note the presence or absence of bands.  I am particularly 
interested in any nesting records.  If you find a bird using a hole, either
in a church or elsewhere, then please broadcast it to SBB and let's work on 
identifying the adults and looking for evidence of breeding.

      The source of these birds is the stuff of urban legend--a Marine World

truck crash, accidents at pet stores, and so on.  If anyone has any first
hand evidence--I'm interested.  Are these naturalized birds, that is, are
they established here?  One criteria is ten consecutive years of breeding.
As of today we have acceptable evidence of one year of breeding, which
suggests the birds are not yet established.  Eventually, with good
documentation, we should be able to find an answer in a few decades.

      There are other parrots around.  Generally, I hear only of single
birds which surely must be recent escapees.  Some Naday Parakeets were
around the Palo Alto-Menlo Park area 15 years ago, but I've heard nothing of
them in recent years.  Elsewhere in the Bay area are other flocks, but
that's another story.

      					Bill
------------------------------------------------------------------------


10/19/2001

Matthew mentions hearing conures for the past week at 6pm.  Here in
Sunnyvale the conure patterns are changing from summer to winter behavior as
well.  All summer long, I have had a pair of MITRED CONURES (=PARROTS)
around my house, apparently attempting to nest as they were seen copulating
and tearing at the roof shingles of a nearby church.  Occasionally more
birds would show up in the neighborhood, with up to 8 flying around and
landing on various trees.  After seeing at least the pair daily since early
summer, they disappeared after the first of October.  Last Saturday
10/13/01, I happened to be in a slightly different part of Sunnyvale in the
evening and was treated to the remarkable sight of 3 groups of vocal conures
joining together to form a flock of 25 birds, which then headed off towards
the junction of Remington and Mary at 6:35pm, apparently heading to an
evening roost.

These parrots have been around locally for many years and have been
confirmed to be breeding in some years.  It seems that their numbers may
indeed be increasing, although they have not been systematically censused.
The California Bird Records Committee has recently added Red-crowned Parrot
to the state list, based on the 2000 or so birds breeding in southern
California (perhaps 20% of the world population!).  Although the Red-masked
and Mitred Conures are less numerous, they may also be candidates for
addition to the state list. In order to make such a determination, the
status (breeding, population size, etc.) needs to be assessed.  Thus
information on our birds may be of great interest in this assessment -
please keep the list informed about such observations.

Thanks,
Mike Rogers
_______________________________________________
10/14/2003

I assume folks are aware of large flock of large parakeets in Las Palmas
park in Sunnyvale near Hollenbeck Av. Last few weekends I have seen them
flying around the palms in the center of the park around 4-5PM. I need to go
back with binocs to identify them. I assume they roost in these palms.

Vivek
[[email protected]]

-----Original Message-----
From: south-bay-birds-bounces+vivek.tiwari=[[email protected]]
[mailto:south-bay-birds-bounces+vivek.tiwari=[[email protected]]]On
Behalf Of [[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2003 12:22 AM
To: SBB Chat Group
Subject: Re: [SBB] 10-9-03 Red-masked Parakeets back in Sunnyvale (fwd)


Hi!
Attached is a list of more public places to view the Red-masked Parakeets in
Sunnyvale, thanks to "Chris", who sent these locations to me.  Since they
tend to be roosting in another part of town by 3:30pm, I'd try these
locations earlier in the day.  Just listen for them, they make quite a
racket and when they fly, they tend to fly in circles a couple of times
before heading to another tree/location.  Perhaps they are trying to escape
predators or maybe they are just trying to get organized!  Good luck! Jean
Myers
----------------------  Forwarded Message:  ---------------------
From:    Chris <[[email protected]]>
To:      <[[email protected]]>
Subject: Re: [SBB] 10-9-03 Red-masked Parakeets back in Sunnyvale
Date:    Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:26:53 -0700

They are also known to frequent a more populated area in Sunnyvale that
people can go try to catch them.

In the trees around the small apartment complex behind Orchard Supply
Hardware (behind being away from El Camino) on Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd near El
Camino.

We have seen them there 3 times over the last several months. They have also
been seen in the trees near the community center park at Remington which is
only about 1/3 mile as the crow flies. And more rarely in front of the Nob
Hill grocery store on El Camino.

-Chris

--------------------------------------------------------------


Kimball L. Garrett
Ornithology Collections Manager
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90007
(213) 763-3368
(213) 746-2999 FAX
[[email protected]]

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

 Among the most dramatically increasing naturalized parrots in the Los
Angeles region is the Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri). This
species was formerly known as the "Canary-winged Parakeet", but that taxon
was recently split into the Yellow-chevroned and the White-winged Parakeet
(B. versicolurus).  A few White-winged Parakeets may persist on the Palos
Verdes Peninsula, and small numbers also occur in the San Francisco Bay
area.  The Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, through a procedural quirk, is on the
ABA North America checklist but not currently on any official state or
provincial checklist.  Although we cannot predict whether new information
will support the addition of this species to the California list, it is
certainly important to obtain such information.  We gathered fairly thorough
information on Yellow-chevroned and White-winged Parakeets in the mid-1990s
(see Western Birds 28[4]:181-195, 1997), but it is clear that
Yellow-chevroneds are continuing to expand their range and numbers.  It is
time to get a good snapshot of the numbers and distribution of
Yellow-chevroneds, and I ask for your help.

 During the calendar year 2005, please e-mail me sightings of
Yellow-chevroned Parakeets (and of White-winged Parakeets if you run across
any) in the following format:

YOUR NAME/CONTACT INFO [presumably in e-mail signature]

SPECIES: Yellow-chevroned Parakeet [or....]

DATE:

TIME OF DAY:

EXACT LOCATION [be specific - street intersection or address, park name,
etc.]

NUMBER OF BIRDS IN FLOCK:

FLYING? [DIRECTION?]

FEEDING? [TREE SPECIES? FOOD TYPE?]

NESTING? [give details]

OTHER BEHAVIOR:

ANY OTHER NOTES OF INTEREST:

DOCUMENTATION [If you can obtain photos, feel free to send them]

 Please DO NOT e-mail me directly with routine sightings of other parrots
- you can continue reporting them through the California Parrot Project web
site:

http://natureali.org/parrot_project/Parrot_Project.html

    We have learned from work with Amazona and Aratinga parrots that the
best way to pin down population size is to count birds at roost sites; so I
am especially interested in information about definite or potential
nighttime roosting sites of Brotogeris parakeets.

 Please feel free to cross-post this request to other listserves (besides
LACoBirds and CalBirds) in southern California and in the San Francisco Bay
area.


----------------------------------------------------------
And a reference to SF Parrots:

Message: 2
   Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 09:48:58 -0700
   From: "Luke Cole" <[[email protected]]>
Subject: SF Parakeets & Birding magazine

The latest issue of Birding has a very interesting article on Brotogeris
parakeets that is of specific relevance to SF birders, particularly those
living in Noe Valley where our resident flock lives (major roost is the palm
in the median strip on Dolores immediately south of 24th Street).  The
article is an adaptation of info that has been on the author's website (I
cant remember his name as I am writing this at work) that shows the
intergradation between White-winged and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets in south
Florida.  We have some similar intergradation going on in our population.  I
urge you to check it out.  Those who don't get Birding, should -- but I will
also look for the link to the online piece if anyone is interested.

The latest issue of Birding also features an excellent article by one of our
own, Mr. "Now-I-publish-in-Birding-all-the-time" Jay Withgott, on the
Carolina Parakeet.

While normally not a fan of exotics, I found the parakeet article helpful as
I have had the flock over my house three days this week.  Jay's piece is
great, regardless -- and Carolinas weren't exotics, they actually lived here
in the US until we killed them all.

Luke

Luke Cole
San Francisco

------------------------------



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