by Wanda Teays | Photos by the Author
Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it IS a bird! 50 of them!
One of the many joys of living in Pasadena is getting to see a flock of Amazon parrots making their way across the city. In the morning they venture south from Washington, Walnut, and Holly, and onward. Many then hang out near the Urth café on Madison, south of Colorado. Others come to rest in the palm trees and sycamores near the City Hall. On a recent morning around 9:00 a.m. dozens of parrots were in the palm tree behind Alexander’s and the Pizza Kitchen on Los Robles and Colorado. They also frequent trees on Euclid and Union before heading back north.
Mind you, they are not worried in the slightest about predators or Pasadena residents who value peace and quiet. Not these avians! They clearly enjoy loud and frequent squawks as they make their way across the sky. What a celebration!
Fortunately for us bird lovers, we can count up to 50 parrots flying north as sunset nears. Around 5:00 p.m. they come up from Madison toward Los Robles and on to Euclid and Garfield, squawking their way over the Plaza Las Fuentes—much to the delight of small children and the rest of us.
How did so many come to reside in Pasadena? Escapees from a few households and then the product of a breeding frenzy? Travelers from Mexico who came to stay? Survivors of a pet shop fire fifty years ago? Whatever the reason that we’ve been graced with their presence, these wonderful parrots are as much a part of the splendors of Pasadena as the Rose Parade. Aren’t we lucky?
Bird lover Wanda Teays (wteays@msmu.edu) is a Philosophy & Ethics professor and author who lives with her husband in Pasadena. She snapped these photos of parrots that stopped to play as they made their way toward the City Hall.
