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.