@dystopian
We have flocks of Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned scattered around San Diego county. The largest flock I've seen was probable around 70-80 birds. I've seen small flocks of parrots in the SF bay area. I was surprised to see them that far north.

Hi all, hey SP! Hope it's all good out there!

Awesome photos SP! Great pics of great birds! One of the loudest things I ever heard (besides a Uriah Heep show in a small theater in '71) was a flock of 166 Lilac-crowned Parrots flying over to a roost. It was deafening, you could not speak with someone next to you. Was down in Nayarit.

Perhaps of some interest regarding Red-crowned Parrot. They are endemic to far northeastern Mexico ONLY. They are not even found in southern Mexico, or the central plateau. Small numbers were believed to have colonized the Rio Grande areas along river in the 1980's. As did Green Parakeet, a big Mourning Dove sized parakeet found in NE Mexico.

Fair numbers of Red-crowns were released or escaped in south Florida, and in Los Angeles. The LA population exploded. They are common there now, there are roosts in the hundreds. There is a webpage called LA Parrot watch or somesuch. The hunting pressure for cage bird trade decimated the wild populations in NE Mexico. There are now believed to be more Red-crowns living in metro socal, than in their original wild native habitats in NE Mexico. So a rare case of when something taken out of its natural habitat, thrived elsewhere, and ended up being a major critical gene reservoir for the species.

Research done on them shows they are eating almost entirely non-native species. Which means they are not competing with any native species for limited resources. The dizzying array of botanic offerings in LA and socal are apparently quite to their liking.

Fantastic photos! Thanks for sharing! And hosting!

@dystopian
We get the Belted Kingfishers here. The females have the brown feathers on their chest instead of the males like the Green Kingfisher. I've seen Belted Kingfishers beat a fish they've caught against a tree branch before swallowing it. Do you know if the Green Kingfisher do that too? I'm guessing that they do it to break up the bones to make it easier to swallow and digest.

okie dokie

one of my favorite birds, Green Kingfisher, which are dinky pint-sized compared to Belted Kingfisher.

another fav... Green Jay - in the U.S. a south Texas endemic.

And from Harbor Pk. in L.A., a Green Heron complete with trash, a natural LA city park habitat.

Don't have a handy Green Parakeet pic, sorry...

Once in south Texas Mrs. dysto and I saw Green Heron, Green Jay, Green Kingfisher and Green Parakeet all in one day. And a Black-throated Green Warbler to boot.

Have good ones all! Enjoy your greens... Janis should be along any time to blow our greens away.

@orlbucfan
While I don't want 90° temps I won't mind temps in the mid 70s. We've had very few days like that this winter which is unusual.

never disappoint! The Green Heron plus LA trash, what a statement! LOL. The visuals are great! janis' second pic looks like a surrealistic painting. We get the Jays around here, but any parrots would be in So. FL if a hurricane and/or idiot biped frees them. They are not native here. The tunes are ABFAB!! Lemon Pipers--wowsers, I haven't heard that one in decades! I always liked the old, original FMac much, much better than the Buckingham-Nicks version. Anywho, humid and 90s in east central FL--yeck! Hope all is well! REC'D!!