Help save injured and orphaned wild parrots

Hello SoCal Parrot supporters!

This is Dez Brooks, SCP's new (ish!) Operations Director. I took over the role in April of 2025, and jumped pretty immediately into learning the day-to-day routine and prepping for the fast approaching baby season! As I look back on my first six months in the position and the busiest months of the year, I wanted to share some updates about our parrot patients. But first, a bit about me.

I've been a wildlife rehabilitator for over seven years, and I've worked with many wildlife species at high volume centers in Oklahoma, Virginia, and Oregon. My experience with parrots comes from a few internships at zoos, and from my own Yellow-Headed Amazon. I brought lots of background in avian husbandry and veterinary care to SCP, and have been picking up parrot-specific knowledge from our wonderful network of expert parrot colleagues! I am very grateful to everyone who's answered my questions and shared their knowledge with me as I got more familiar with being up close and personal to parrots.

As we are now in mid-September, the busy baby season is beginning to wind down. But it's definitely not over yet, as we're caring for plenty of juvenile conures that still require multiple formula feeds a day! We've also had a significantly higher patient load than 2024. Last year, we admitted a total of 104 parrots. We're already at 107 patients admitted for 2025, and we've still got three and a half months to go. 2025 will definitely be a high admission year, and our team of staff and volunteers have stayed very busy over the summer.

I've really enjoyed working with parrots so far, and it's been a treat to admit some of the more uncommon species! Two of my favorite patients this summer were an orphaned Nanday Conure and an orphaned Patagonian Conure, who quickly became fast friends once they were introduced in a small aviary. The juvenile Patagonian was also a first for SCP, as we have previously only treated adults of this species. It's great to know that even the parrot species with smaller populations in SoCal are able to be successful in breeding and raising young out in the urban wild. We look forward to releasing these two conures (and many more young parrots!) in the upcoming months.

I've also been excited to continue using my skills in wildlife medicine with our parrot patients. From treating adult conures with humerus fractures requiring daily bandage changes and physical therapy to juvenile Amazons suffering from emaciation, it's been great to apply my previous experience in working with these new-to-me species. I've also been working hard to train our newer permanent and seasonal staff members in these techniques, and they've picked up on everything very quickly. As we begin to plan our large scale parrot releases that will take place over the fall and winter, we're all really looking forward to seeing our successfully rehabilitated patients get their second chance back out in the environment.

We're also continuing to expand the SCP facility, with the addition of a new storage unit closer to the main center. And on a more exciting note, construction is currently underway on three brand new flight aviaries! This will upgrade our capacity for working with more rehabilitation and confiscated patients, and we're thrilled to have this project underway. We're hoping to move birds into these new enclosures within a few months, and are looking forward to being able to serve even more parrots in need in the future.

Of course, none of this work can happen without your support! I've been so grateful to learn how passionate the parrot community is, both locally and on an international scale, and I've made so many wonderful connections just in the first few months as part of SoCal Parrot. We are so thankful for our volunteers, community members, veterinarians, other wildlife rehab centers and avian rescues, and parrot conservationists and researchers that make our work possible. Keep an eye out for future updates as we bring the 2025 season to a close and begin to release our patients from the past year.

My apologies for the late report but we have been dealing with a lot of changes over the last several months.  This is Josh and I'm temporarily taking over our reports, hence the tardiness.  After a fabulous two years at the helm of SoCal Parrot, Ashly is moving on from her Operation Director position.  The dedication to caring for all of our parrots and surviving baby season is a tough job.  The best part is Ashly is staying in San Diego and will still be a part of SoCal Parrot going forward.  I know everyone that worked with Ashly appreciated her hard work and dedication.  Ashly has spent the last couple of months training our new Operations Director Dez.  We are excited to see what Dez adds to SoCal Parrot.  She has extensive education and experience with wildlife rehabilitation and will be taking the reins.  You'll soon be seeing reports from Dez keeping you up to date on the goings on at SocaL Parrot, especially with baby seaon about to start. 

The other big change at SoCal Parrot started with an arrest of two people in Costa Mesa by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife for animal cruelty.  It looks like this was part of the pet trade.  There were 280 parrots confiscated from the house who were sick and malnurished.  Somer parrots were already dead in their cage.  SoCal Parrot was contacted to take these parrots in as the only organization that can handle this many birds.  It took weeks to cut through the red tape of receiving the parrots, by then the number of parrots still alive dipped below 200.  Due to the unknown illnesses that these parrots had, we had to house them at a facility that was not at our rescue.  I can't give a location but we have another property that we had to convert into a quarantine facility in a week with the ability to shower in and shower out so no diseases could be released to any other birds.  Full PPE's (personal protective equipment) were used to ensure no zoonotic diseases were transmitted.  This process began at the beginning of February and is ongoing.  Brooke Durham our founder has been living at this satellite facility since February running the operation.  It is a few hours from our sanctuary so we were unable to use any of our regular SoCal Parrot volunteers.  It's been amazing, other bird rescue/sanctuary organizations have sent volunteers from all over the country to help us.  I apologize if I miss one but we have received volunteer support from Foster Parrots, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Pasadena Humane Society, Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, The Oasis Sanctuary and WRMD Wildlife Rehabilitation MD.  Parrot Posse has sent a ton of valuable food and supplies needed to take care of 200 parrots.  There have also been several individuals helping us to keep the care going for almost four months now.  

The hard part about all of this is that the birds were surrendered to us.  There will be no financial support from CDFW, USDFW or any other government agency.  We haven't even had time to attempt to fundraise for this.  We are not only feeding and housing 200 parrots but also all of the support staff, volunteers and interns that have been helping for months.  Brooke did have time to set up a website for these parrots called Operation 33 Kilos (it's the approximate weight of all the birds combined and links them to illegal trafficking).  Please visit the Operation 33 Kilos at https://www.operation33kilos.com.  

With all of this going on, the world doesn't stop turning and parrots don't stop making babies.  Baby season is here and Dez is getting ready for her first season with us.  We're hoping it's not overwhelming and will have time to take over these reports going forward.

If you still have time, here's the story of Berry as told by SCP's partner veterinarian who helps us with confiscation cases:

Berry was the bird at the intersection of hoarding/smuggling/pet trade. He was a White-fronted Amazon that came into care as part of this 300-bird confiscation by state and local authorities. The culprit had been suspected as being involved with illegal trafficking, and was described as “an opportunist” dealing in sub-legal or outright illegal trade. He was arrested by local authorities on very serious animal cruelty charges, and the birds were taken into custody. Most of them eventually made it to our purpose-built isolation facility, for intensive testing, treatment and veterinary care.

We first met Berry in the shelter holding the confiscated birds. He was the first bird examined and immediately put into “get him to ICU –NOW” critical level. A miracle and testament to the strong will to live in parrots; and even though he fought to live and we did our best to help him...our best was not good enough. Not good enough to overcome years of abuse and neglect. Not enough to overcome the consequences of kidnapping as an infant, smuggling, hoarding, the underground and the overt pet trade. Not enough to overcome the myth of pet expos, lure of flea markets, and abject ignorance.

Berry was, to be blunt, a dead-bird-perching when we took him into care. We did not think he would survive the transport to the quarantine facility. It was a testament to the resilience of parrots that he stayed alive for a month, AND gained 40 grams of weight (nearly 30% of his original weight) while fighting illness! Berry was always sweet, and seemed to understand that the things we did made him more comfortable. He was in ICU with oxygen supplementation and intensive supportive care and treatment for more than a month. He won our hearts and everyone was hopeful. But, it was all just too much. So let us not think he died in vain, and let us keep that hope for the rest of the nearly 200 birds that have survived the ordeal so far.

Links:

• Costa Mesa Animal Cruelty
• Operation 33 Kilos