Several cherry-headed conures regularly visit the juniper tree in our yard to feast on the berries. Lots of interesting information about the wild parrots of San Francisco can be found here: www.kqed.org/n...
My friend in San Francisco who lives on top of a hill has her own flock. She puts the food on the top railing of her deck and she gets 30 or so of them to come and eat each day. They are so used to her they are now landing on her arm and eating out of her hand!!! She sends us videos. But I told her to be sure and wash her hands super super well after visiting with her birds!!
it is amazing that a highly endangered species in its original homeland, which still has an uncertain future due to the inability to protect the population from illegal hunting, has such a thriving and growing wild population in a place where it is unlikely to be threatened. We can only hope that some blinded conservationist will not seek to shoot the "non-native species". But as a back-up source for releases to native habitats, it wouldn't be a bad attempt if the growing population in San Francisco were to threaten or expand too much.
Bet they make an awful mess dropping those spent berry husks. They often stop by my roost near the Sanchez Stairs at 19th St. I see them going from the Mission District to the Castro all the time.
They can be messy, you are right about that! I still wish I had a girlfriend for my boy Noel! I named him for his green and red coloring since we got him around December of 2016. I sincerely hope he lives for a good long time. He is a free-thinker and his speech is amazing and his sense of humor is out of this world. I don't know where his original human got him, but I love him to no end! There is one downside to the whole deal, he likes to tell us humans "hey you, be quiet".
This was shot with a Canon Vixia HF G30. The blog that I linked to in the description seems to have been taken down. Which is a pity, because it contained very good details about the birds. I have now edited the description to remove the dead link and replace it with another link to a KQED article about them here: www.kqed.org/news/11185731/where-did-the-wild-parrots-of-san-francisco-come-from It has this to say about them: "The wild parrots in and around San Francisco are called cherry-headed conures. At one point, a mitred conure joined the flock and bred with the cherry heads. Now the flock is dotted with hybrids. There are a couple ways to differentiate the breeds. Cherry heads have slightly smaller bodies and a red helmet pattern on their heads, whereas mitred conures have a more blotchy pattern of red and feet that are a slightly darker hue."
Does anyone breed these? I have a male, I'm quite sure by personality, I would love to have a female! My cherry-head sounds like a grumpy little old man!
