Steve's Sightings: Brownsville park has plenty of surprises

Red-crowned parrots in Oliveira Park, Brownsville, Texas. Image by Steve SinclairWhile photographing birds a few days ago, I had a casual conversation with an out-of-state couple here for a few days of Rio Grande Valley birding.

The highlight of their birding experience was a trip to Oliveira Park in west Brownsville to see red-crowned, yellow-headed, lilac-crowned and red-lored parrots.

This caught me by surprise. I knew nothing about flocks of parrots basically in my own backyard and it was somewhat embarrassing to find out about these birds from someone a thousand miles away.

Well, it was time to pay a visit to Oliveira Park.

It was less than an hour until sunset when I arrived on Saturday and other birders with binoculars, scopes and cameras were already there. We had beaten the parrots there by several minutes.

Eventually, we could hear their squawking in the distance, even before they came into sight. Gradually they came closer, landing in trees of residences lining the park. The red-crowned parrots were by far the most numerous. Eventually, the other species were spotted along with a couple of green parakeets.

The parrots moved to another area and small flocks from every direction kept adding to the numbers. Finally, the parrots landed in eucalyptus trees and on utility wires at the park.

The raucous noise was deafening. There's nothing subtle about parrots.

In the trees and with the last sun rays of the day fading, it was difficult to pick out individuals but the incessant chattering left no doubt they were there in numbers.

We probably saw 150 to 200 parrots, by far the most I've seen at one time.

I was particularly happy to see the yellow-headed parrots.

In the past two decades, the global population of yellow-headed parrots has declined from 70,000 individuals to 7,000 and there is concern about their future. I don't have a good guess about how many yellow-headed parrots there are in the Valley, but the number is pretty small.

To see so many parrots and parakeets at one time is a moment in time I will always remember and, hopefully, it won't be the last time I make a trip to Oliveira Park.