Wild Parrot Declared San Francisco’s Official Animal

Photo by Eliya Selhub on Flickr

I’m pretty sure the first time I heard about San Francisco’s wild parrots was in the kitchen of 1907 Golden Gate. This must’ve been 2004, and I was asking the illustrious P Segal about quirky things to include in my zine, Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco. Among other things, she told me about the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and I’ve been in love with them ever since.

It appears I’m not the only one who loves our beautiful and loud feathered friends. On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to name the wild parrots the official animal of San Francisco.

The idea came about on the Total SF Podcast where SF Chronicle writers and podcasters Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight, realized that San Francisco had “an official instrument, official flower and two official songs, but no official animal.” So the Chron ran an Official Animal contest in which everything from the Mission Blue Butterfly to the Golden Gate Park Bison to the Dungeness Crab competed for the coveted and laureled position. In the end it came down to the Wild Parrots and and Sea Lions and the brightly colored bird won out. It was a harrowing contest.

As the Chronicle reported in their daily newsletter, “Supervisor Myrna Melgar introduced legislation to make the win official, and Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí signed on as co-sponsors. After the resolution was introduced in April and a unanimous vote on June 13, the supervisors voted Tuesday to name the parrots the city’s official animal.”

Photo by Eliya Selhub on Flickr

But where did this flock of wild parrots come from? I’m so glad you asked! According to this piece on KQED, the birds originated in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. They were brought to the US to be sold as pets since the country had the “largest importer of birds in the world before the government banned the trade of wild exotic birds in 1992.”

Apparently the birds eventually either escaped or were released. KQED goes into further detail explaining:

There are a number of theories. A commonly held belief is that the parrots were released by a woman who was having a psychotic break and subsequently burned down the pet store where they were housed. This is partially true. A pet store did burn down in Pasadena, but the woman was an employee of sound mind simply trying to save the birds. The parrots in San Francisco most likely weren’t released from the fire in Pasadena.

More likely, the San Francisco conures escaped or were purposely released by pet owners. The conures can live for decades, and they’re loud and demanding pets, so not everyone is suited to caring for them. While some may have escaped, Jamie Yorck, the owner of the now-closed Spectrum Exotic Birds, believes that a few owners may simply have left a window open hoping their birds would join the wild flock.

So there it is. San Francisco now has an official animal and you have some fascinating info to tell at the next party you go to.