Murder Most Fowl

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

So Harper Lee wrote in 1960. Could not the same be said of the squawking green parrots that brighten our San Gabriel Valley skies daily? The black-and-white photo here is not a Polaroid of spatchcocked Thanksgiving leftovers. It’s an X-ray of a parrot that was shot with a BB gun in Pasadena a week or so ago. This bird is one of 11 recently gunned down with pellets, BBs and possibly something of larger caliber.

Parrots are Psittacines, like the colorful caged parakeets we know as budgies, which were originally Australian natives. “Budgie” is short for “budgerigar,” a probable mangling of two Aboriginal (Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay) words meaning…wait for it…”good eating.” OK, but it’s unlikely that anyone in Pasadena is gunning down parrots for the dinner table.

There is no parrot-hunting season in Pasadena and environs. 

The Department of Fish & Wildlife does not issue a parrot-hunting license. Parrots are not considered game birds, nor are they indigenous to our immediate area, meaning that they are not protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).

However, it’s still against the law to kill them.

Red-crowned Parrots are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, but non-endangered parrots are not. However, in California, all parrots are protected by state anti-cruelty laws.

Attacks on our area’s iconic green parrots suggest that not everyone in our foothill communities accepts these facts. Judging from the recent photos, the Red-crowned Parrot, the Lilac-crowned Parrot, and the Mired Parakeets are all under fire.

Cleo Watts (California Permit #1093459326) is our area’s only licensed wildlife rehabber. We spoke with her over the weekend to learn more about the reported 11 green parrots grounded by gunshot wounds in the past two weeks.

Just to give you an idea of the scope and urgency of Cleo’s mission in the absence of trained, licensed colleagues, Cleo was recently approached to re-home an alligator, an unfortunate creature that is outside her purview, which generally concentrates on injured and orphaned possums, skunks, squirrels and raccoons.

About the Parrots

As always, Nextdoor.com is a-dither with opinions, screeds and theories.

“People on Nextdoor keep posting about some guy in a white pick-up truck shooting at parrots,” says Cleo. “But some of the birds were shot with BB guns, some with a pellet gun, and one that got his wing blown off. I don’t know guns, but I think that could only be done with, you know, a real gun.”

By the way, a BB really is no less deadly for birds than a shotgun shell, though slower in its effect. A BB or pellet will create a non-lethal injury, which will invite infection and result in a painful death. So unless there’s some jackass in a white truck, packing heat of several types and racing around the San Gabriel Valley shooting at parrots from various locations, there are multiple shooters who are taking aim at green parrots.

Exactly why, we’re unsure.

We’re looking forward to a face-to-face sit-down with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife because there are so many variables, so much so that even our rescuers are confused. But here’s our best read on what’s happening.

Part of the confusion arises because parrots are an introduced species, as in introduced to Los Angeles County. This disqualifies them from coverage under the MBTA. However, green parrots are considered to be naturalized wildlife and are thus protected under the more general coverage regarding animal cruelty, as are all manner of beasts. The California State Anti-Cruelty Statute (Penal Code 597) makes it a crime to maliciously and intentionally harm or kill an animal in our state.

We had to pause at the legalese, which states that causing death “maliciously” qualifies as animal cruelty. That’s a sort of subjective adverb, but it has since been explained to me that, in this context, maliciously simply means “not by accident.” By this definition, of course, legal hunting is malicious, but that’s a mountain to be climbed another day.

Some people we’ve talked with, including parrot advocates, believe that the shooters feel justified “because parrots are an invasive species.” However, our research thus far indicates that this assumption is incorrect. Parrots have not been demonstrated to displace native species, meaning that they are considered introduced but not invasive. They are also not scientifically classified as feral. Strictly speaking, “feral” describes a domesticated animal that’s gone native (i.e., cat, dog, horse), and parrots are not considered sufficiently domesticated to qualify.

Are they a legal “nuisance,” whatever that is? Yes, they are noisy. So are children. Bear in mind that parrots rely primarily on ornamental, non-native vegetation (like eucalyptus flowers, persimmons, loquats, guavas, and figs) as their primary food sources. This means, in the estimation of science and the law at this moment, that they don’t compete with native birds for resources. Parrots will feast on all sorts of juicy stuff in your garden, but the fact that their preferred menu is as exotic as they are weakens the argument that they’re interfering with the natural order. Simply put, the natural order is changing.

The other issue is how the parrots are being killed. A year ago, a person was netting parrots. There are no laws regarding nets on the books. There are, however, plenty of laws on the books regarding the specific use of guns, including pellet guns and BB guns. Pasadena Municipal Code 9.80.010 forbids discharging a firearm within city limits unless the shooter is at a firing range or at a private testing facility of an optics manufacturer registered with the police department.

So yahoos using guns of any kind to take down parrots are, in fact, violating two separate sets of laws. Depending upon a number of nuances, either and both may result in incarceration for a year and fines.

Parrots are A-listers in the illegal animal trade, meaning that many are poached as pets – that’s probably what the person with the nets was doing last year. Poaching, along with habitat loss in Mexico, Costa Rica, the central Andes of Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and southern Texas in the case of the endangered Red-crowned Parrot, are reducing parrot populations from Berkeley to Buenos Aires. So, many naturalists now refer to the flocks of parrots in cities in California, Texas, Hawaii, and Florida as urban biodiversity arks, defined as “unplanned species assemblages.”

But here’s the topper: scientists now believe that urban parrot populations like ours are crucial to the survival of the 25 naturalized parrot species now encountered in the USA. This is relevant in light of the fact that roughly 59 percent of all parrot species are decreasing in their native ranges.

Whether or not you care for parrots, the current wave of killings is illegal. And the killings do more than simply take down a few birds: disrupting our urban colonies may jeopardize the future of parrot species.

If you witness an act of violence against wildlife, notify the California Department of Fish and Wildlife immediately.