"Black Friday, Green Parrots" Or, "Is That Your Bird Maam?"

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Just a little while ago, I’m sitting here at my Boca Raton, Florida “office” working on a bunch of different things while at the same time enjoying the warm sun, the ocean breeze and a frozen lemonade, when all of a sudden a flurry of green caught my eye.

I grabbed my trusty Canon PowerShot and headed over and started snapping away. What I captured was several green parrots. You might be wondering, “are parrots native to Florida?” Well, the answer is “no.” According to one report:

In the 1960’s pet parrots became quite popular and there was a huge business importing parrots that were caught in the wild elsewhere. It is thought that the wild parakeets in Florida originated from these birds that somehow got loose before being sold off. Since these birds were not domesticated and already had to fend for themselves in the wild, it was easy for them to adapt to life in Florida and multiply to the flocks present today. (https://www.epet-center.com/wildparakeetsinflorida.html)

Up the road in Palm Beach, parrots have been on the island since the 1940’s when they were imported. The famous Breakers Palm Beach hotel is home to several endangered wild green-cheeked Amazon parrots. Occasionally, some scally-wags will attempt to steal the parrots and sell them at a pet store, but as this article from The Palm Beach Post says, parrot theives face a stiff fine if caught:

Trapping birds on the island can result in a $250 fine for the first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses. Whoever trapped the birds could also face arrest on trespassing charges for going onto Breakers property without permission.

While I enjoyed the beauty of these afternoon visitors, I hope you do as well in the photos that I’m sharing with you below.