Fruit trees and 'generational learning' turn El Cajon into a parrot paradise as temperatures drop

The squawking usually begins just past 4:30 p.m. this time of year, when the sun begins to hang low in the sky.

Just a few at first, announcing themselves with loud calls from above. Another flock soon appears from the south, then a larger one from the east, and even more soon fly in from the north and west.

Like clockwork, hundreds of parrot have returned to roost in trees around El Cajon’s Civic Center and along East Main Street and Sulzfeld Way.

The squawking grows louder as the sky slowly darkens. The cacophony in the tall trees past the Magnolia theater courtyard blends together into a type of consistent droning, a noise some locals describe as machine-like while others say it is just eerie.

Visitors unaccustomed to the ritual stare upward and point to the sky. Men playing dominoes in the plaza and other locals don’t even look up.

“I probably estimate there’s around 600,” Cal Poly Pomona Assistant Professor Janel Ortiz said about the El Cajon parrot population. “Usually in fall and winter is when it’s biggest.”

Ortiz runs the Urban Parrot Project, which began as the San Diego Parrot Project when she was a professor at the University of San Diego.

Most parrots in the block are the red-crowned and lilac-crowned Amazon variety, two of 13 known types of parrots and parakeets common in San Diego County. Some are in El Cajon year-round, but many spend warmer months on the coast to breed. Flocks of parrots are common sights in Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Oceanside and other coastal areas, but many fly east in late summer and stay in El Cajon until around February.

During those months, one block of El Cajon has the largest parrot population in the county. But just how many parrots are there is unclear, and no one seems to have ever attempted an official count.

That wouldn’t be easy. The birds leave at dawn and return shortly before sunset, with large patches circling around the block while other groups arrive from every direction. Keeping track of their numbers in flight would be a challenge, but it’s definitely in the hundreds.

Ortiz and others who have studied parrots say they don’t know why the parrots are attracted to one block in El Cajon, but an abundant food supply and generational learning are among the assumptions.

“My guess is that they’re going to El Cajon probably just for the climate,” said Jenna Stallard, wildlife care manager for birds at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “And maybe there’s more fruiting trees.”

The International Union of Conservation and Nature lists the red crown and lilac crown Amazon parrots as endangered, and Stallard said poaching and diminishing habitat in Mexico likely have contributed to the birds’ lower numbers in their native land.

Ashly Cass, operations manager of the parrot-rescue nonprofit SoCal Parrot, said the red crown Amazon is native to the gulf side of Mexico a few hundred miles south of Texas and the lilac crown is native to the Pacific side of the country.

Cass said the parrots are not migratory so probably did not fly that distance on their own, and she suspects the birds were brought over the border illegally and either escaped or were set free over many years.

Reports of parrots in San Diego County date back to the 1940s. Besides the red crown and lilac crown variety, other Amazon parrots in San Diego County are the red-lored, yellow-headed, blue-fronted and white-fronted parrots.

San Diego County also has a population of non-native mitred, red-masked, blue-crowned, black-hooded, yellow-chevroned and white-winged parakeets.

Cass said if somebody spots a blue parrot, cockatoo or other exotic non-native bird, it’s likely someone’s escaped pet and she advises people to look for notices of a missing bird or post the sighting.

While the birds are not native to the area, they also are not considered an intrusive species because they do not harm local wildlife or vegetation.

“Here in Southern California, they’re going to eat our non-native ornamental planting, stuff that has fruit, flowers, nuts, seeds,” Cass said.

Those are not eaten by indigenous birds, so there is no competition for food between local and non-native species, Cass said. And since parrots like a variety in their diet, they aren’t likely to decimate a crop, but rather eat from one tree and move on to another food source.

“Anything higher in sugar, fats, carbs,” she said about a parrot’s diet. “Here, they’re going to be going after things like loquats, citrus, apples, different flowers, nuts. Anything we plant in our neighborhood, which is why they tend to stick to urban areas.”

Chris Berg, an El Cajon resident and the city’s marketing manager, said parrots show up in his backyard each July to feed on cones in his cedar tree, and then move on after a couple of weeks.

“There’s hundreds, but you don’t even see them because they’re green and the leaves are green,” he said. “Then something will spook them and they’ll all fly away.”

Berg also said he sees many parrots in Kennedy Park about three miles away from the Civic Center each October.

At Testo Pepesto Italian restaurant across the street from the Civic Center, server Daryl Anderson also said she has noticed parrots changing their roosting stations over the season. One tree near the restaurant in Prescott Promenade next to the restaurant had been alive with parrots some weeks ago, but now is empty in the evening, she said.

Anderson and fellow server Tonya Pastorek said the parrots have never been a problem for their outdoor diners, although they are very loud for several minutes each night.

Cass admits the birds can be a bit of a pest during those minutes.

“They can be a little bit noisy, mostly in the morning and evening when they’re doing their social chattering,” she said. “But during the day, they’re pretty chill.”