10:18 AM PST on Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Associated Press

SEATTLE - Seward Park, long known as a nesting site for a couple of pairs of bald eagles, has become the home of a growing colony of very noisy parrots.

No one knows how the long, sturdy emerald-colored birds with round, red freckles first arrived in the park, a peninsula jutting into Lake Washington west of Mercer Island.

Some believe they are former house pets that escaped from their cages or were released by owners seeking peace and quiet.

Naturalists believe the parrots are nesting in large dead trees that can provide warmth when the birds huddle inside. Park visitors have reported them dining on such local delicacies as discarded apples and wild salmonberries.

Seattle Parks photo The birds may be former house pets that escaped from their cages or were released by owners.

Elsewhere, similar parrots native to South America have made themselves at home in Hyde Park in Chicago and in Brooklyn, N.Y.

None of the other feathered denizens of Seward Park—the eagles, some great blue herons and a black rooster that often strolls through parking lots in the morning—can match the parrots when it comes to noise.

Michael Cohen said he spotted three of the parrots while leading park visitors on a Saturday morning bird walk a decade ago. Now park officials believe there are more than a dozen.

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KING5.com bird care section The Gabriel Foundation

One day recently the parrots' raucous squawks and screeches passed from tree to tree in a stand of pine until about 10 emerged and flew to a tall cedar.

"That's them," Gallegos said.

The birds can develop a vocabulary of 40 to 50 words and sell for about $400 when there's a buyer, which isn't often because "they're just obnoxious," said Gayle Peters, owner of Just Parrots Etc. in Renton.

"Believe it or not, people buy these birds and get fed up," Peters said. "Then they just leave them outside."