The recording of this program from 7 May 2024 is now available online

Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned Parrots in SoCal, with Brenda Ramirez

Non-native parrots have become a very present and boisterous element of the urban ecosystems throughout Southern California. Ranging from cities to more natural areas, parrots can be found in a variety of habitats where they coexist with people. Through the Free-Flying Los Angeles Parrot Project (FLAPP) on iNaturalist, we created a dataset focused on two of the more prominent species in Southern California, the Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned Parrots. After being introduced through the illegal pet trade, these sister-species have established their populations and even created mixed-species flocks that would not be possible otherwise. Originally from opposite coasts of Mexico, these parrots are model organisms for answering questions on range shifts and hybridization because of the unique displacement that has led to their coexistence. Our research has focused on distinguishing the two species based on morphological features, comparing the environmental conditions between their respective native ranges and their introduced range, and we are now shifting to understanding how their genetic makeup has been affected. Join us to learn how you can help contribute to our research from your own neighborhoods!

Brenda Ramirez has experience working with large citizen science datasets and incorporating them into spatial models to understand species distributions over thousands of years. Having recently graduated with her master’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona, Brenda is now working on Moore Lab’s Free-flying Los Angeles Parrot Project (FLAPP) to evaluate how the non-native Los Angeles parrot populations have changed genetically as they have adapted to their new urban habitats.

Note: Ms. Ramiriz’s very useful facial closeup ID charts on these two species are included in our posting Identifying Red-crowned and Lilac-crowned Parrots in Southern California.

Meanwhile, you can read about FLAPP – Free-Flying Los Angeles Parrot Project – on the iNaturalist website and the Moore Laboratory of Zoology website at Occidental College.