A Proliferaton of Ferral Parrots : NEXT L.A.: A look at issues, people and ideas helping to shape the emerging metropolis.

You may have seen them--or, more likely, heard them squawking from the high branches of palm or sycamore trees in the neighborhood.

Brightly colored and gregarious parrots, natives of Mexico and Central and South America, are alighting more often in Los Angeles area back yards. And these released pets and refugees from pet shops--and their descendants--are likely to become even more common.

They dine on a variety of fruits, berries, nuts and seeds--sunflower seeds are a favorite this time of year--and adapt well enough to the Southern California environment to thrive.

Kimball Garrett, manager of ornithology collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, estimates there may be as many as 2,000 feral parrots living in the area. A flock of about 400 red-crowned parrots was recently reported in the San Gabriel Valley and red-crowned and lilac-crowned parrots have been sighted there and in the San Fernando Valley.

“In general, we’ll be seeing an increase in the numbers of parrots,” said Garrett, who heads up the museum’s Parrot Project, which is collecting sightings of the wild bird populations.

“There is no reason to think their numbers should diminish as long as there is food out there,” he said.

Garrett has prepared a form for residents to use to report sightings. It lists the various species of feral birds found in the urban wild--including yellow-headed parrots and several species of parakeet--and asks for detail on whether they were perched or flying, what they ate, and location. Photos are also desired.

Sightings can be reported by writing to Garrett at the Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90007.

The increasing number of tropical birds living amid the native sparrows and robins in Southern California may be nice to look at, but to scientists they represent a larger problem--the displacing of native flora and fauna with non-native populations.

“Some people would say that the up side is that there are more kinds of birds, bright pretty parrots flying around, that makes life more interesting,” Garrett said. “But we have lost so many of our native bird species . . . it’s not a fair trade-off to have a few parrots and have lost so much of what naturally occurred here.

“There are no native palm trees in Los Angeles--but it’s probably the one tree that comes to mind when you think about Southern California,” Garrett said, adding only half-jokingly: “Maybe the Mitred parakeet will become the state bird of California.”