Arizona Oddities

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us

logo

Arizona Oddities

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us
Natural SurroundingsOdd ObservationsValley of the Sun
Home›Natural Surroundings›Peach-Faced Love Birds Live in the Valley?

Peach-Faced Love Birds Live in the Valley?

By Andrea Aker
April 3, 2013
2856
2

Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published April 12, 2001.)

Q: I was walking the Red Mountain Ranch area in east Mesa recently when I saw five or six parrot looking birds with bright green bodies and red heads. What were they?

A: My first instinct was to assume you are delusional, which is not necessarily a bad thing, nor would it necessarily distinguish you from many other readers.

Peach-faced love bird

Peach-faced love bird. Photo taken by Alastair Rae from the UK for Wikipedia and Flickr.

But just on the off chance you actually saw these creatures, I called my old buddy, Dr. Robert Witzeman, long a stalwart of the Maricopa Audubon Society, and, by golly, it turns out you saw what you saw.

This is pretty interesting: The birds you saw,Witzeman said, were peach-faced lovebirds — pet birds that either were freed from or escaped from their cages and are doing just fine on their own. They have been around town for about 10 or 15 years, and Witzeman said the Valley is one of the few areas, perhaps the only one, in the country to have a wild population of the things.

Peach-faced lovebirds are native to Namibia, which I’m pretty sure is in Africa, and neighboring Angola, which I am almost positive is in Africa. Apparently, the climate and the lay of the land in those countries are similar to the Valley’s.

The birds nest in eaves and palm trees and the like. Witzeman said the state Game and Fish Department has been keeping an eye on them, because introducing non-native species can be disastrous in some cases. So far, at least, the lovebirds don’t seem to be displacing other cavity-nesters, such as woodpeckers.

(Visited 476 times, 1 visits today)

Related Posts:

  1. Five Reasons Why It’s Great to Live in the Valley Right Now
  2. The Birds of Santa Cruz County
  3. What’s That After-Rain Aroma in the Valley?
  4. What’s With All the Cockroaches in the Valley? (And How to Get Rid of Them)
  5. There Are a Lot of Grackles in the Valley. Where Do They Come From?
Tagsbirdswildlife

2 comments

  1. linda patterson 13 June, 2016 at 22:32 Reply

    Yes there are thousands in the east valley. Slot are near South Scottsdale. I’ve had up to 15 at a time on my bird feeders.they like the black sun flower seeds

    • Susan 18 August, 2016 at 20:06 Reply

      We had 2 for 8 years, loved them, they love millet

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Arizona Oddities Archive

Most Popular Posts

  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home
  • How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard
  • What’s With All the Backyard Concrete-Block Fences…
  • Did You Know it’s Against the Law to Grow…
  • Can You Get a Sunburn Under Water?

This Week Past Years

2018

  • Spherical Building in Yucca a Monument to Failed Real Estate Project

2014

  • Sing High Chop Suey House Named by Mistake

2013

  • George Daves and Petra Edmunds: Tragic Tombstone Love Story May Not Be What It Seems

2012

  • Bromo Seltzer Art in Phoenix
  • Sunny Days Mean No Free Food in Yuma

2011

  • Time Stands Still In Florence
  • Arizona's "Hollywood" Trivia: Can You Pass?

2010

  • Roosevelt Dam Key to Valley Population Boom
  • Uncle Jim: The Last of Arizona's Bonafide Gunfighters

2009

  • A Giant Head Guards Route 66
  • Old Arizona's "Ladies of the Night"
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Find a Famous Writer and Explorer's Mountain Retreat in Greer

    Find a Famous Writer and Explorer’s Historic Mountain Retreat in Greer

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 31, 2020
  • thousands of Mexican free tail bats make Phoenix tunnel their summer home

    Thousands of Mexican Free-Tail Bats Make Phoenix Tunnel Their Summer Home

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 17, 2020
  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home

    By Andrea Aker
    January 3, 2011
  • Javelina

    How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard

    By Andrea Aker
    November 23, 2011
  • Phil Motta
    on
    August 27, 2021

    Why Does Downtown Phoenix Seem to Have Two Downtowns?

    I know this post ...
  • Carol
    on
    October 17, 2020

    The Tucson Artifacts are the Southwest’s Greatest Hoax

    lol ... these "clues" ...

Follow us

© Copyright 2009 – 2020 Aker Ink, LLC :: Arizona Oddities is published by Aker Ink.