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Comment by hristov | Hacker News Reader

In the northeastern towns of la county there entire flocks of wild parrots flying around, that are escaped or freed pet parrots or descendants from such pet parrots.

I guess parrots would not survive in the wild in canada, but if you have parrot you can no longer care for, maybe you could consider releasing it in the la foothills. He will have friends there.

Maybe is the key word here. I am not a parrot expert.

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No, the vast majority of parrots released into the wild will just die a terrible death. They don't have a flock to live with and don't know how to survive. It's like if you took a bunch of TikTok influencers and threw them into a random forest completely without any support or help. Some will figure it out, but most would not, even if the weather won't kill them right away, they'll eat the wrong thing, drink the wrong thing, or not know how to protect themselves from other animals.

Apparently, they actually have a whole hit "reality" show that does it without fatalities; "Naked and Afraid". But they get training, and have an "out" back into civilisation.

So I can completely imagine they---the poor hapless tiktok influencers---meeting the unfortunate captive parrot's fate, if suddenly sent out into the maw of the wild, without any warning, preparation, or way back to second dibs at a home.

Never been to San Francisco, Telegraph Hill apparently. Huge flocks are living there for decades already.

Oh you sweet summer child, you have clearly never lived in Southern California.

I can identify the flock by the sound they make in the morning.

Entirely missing the point, which is not that they in general can't survive, but that large proportions of animals who have grown up in captivity won't survive if just dumped out in the wild.

Except that there are:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parrot#Other

How many there are in absolute numbers I don't know, but your depiction of all parrots being too stupid to live in the wild is also incorrect. And other animals die too all of the time, so that is not a good assessment.

GP didn't say all parrots wouldn't survive - they said a majority wouldn't without a flock, which your link seems to at least partially agree with.

> And other animals die too all of the time

That’s exactly their point, the parrots are no different. The majority will die, which is what they said.

London has a massive population of feral parakeets, they can survive quite far north of the weather is mild. London is basically an urban forest so that does help.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Brita...

I have lots of them showing up outside my office window... E.g. [1]

But the occasional survival eventually leading to a breeding population doesn't mean the odds of survival for released/escaped birds who have grown up in captivity isn't really low.

[1] https://m.galaxybound.com/@vidar/115909920534715199

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/02/rapid-ex...

Yeah, the explosion in numbers has been rapid, and they hang out in groups and can be real bullies to other birds so they'll definitely have an impact.

On the upside, they're also increasingly supplementing the food supply for peregrine falcons in London (they're apparently easier targets than the pigeons...

Liverpool too. Big flock of them in Sefton park in the south of the city. Pretty nice to see actually!

The parakeets have reached Birmingham as well. Often seen in Canon Hill park, Highbury park or Yardley Old Village around the church. Always brightens my day.

https://www.paradiseroad.co.uk/the-parakeeting-of-london-an-...

Lol please don't release random parrots. Even if they happen to be the species common in LA, if they aren't members of the wild flock they might get bullied.

You never release exotic pets to the wild. Isn't that common knowledge by now? If you can no longer care for an animal bring it to the vet to get it euthanized.

Did you ask the bird whether it wants to be nuked by you - or, by proxy, the vet - here? I don't call murder "euthanization" - that is just propaganda to sell to yourself that you have the right to decide who lives and who does not.

Releasing it is just murder by neglect so people don't feel bad about themself that they actually killed their pet just because "they can't care" for it anymore aka they don't want to deal with the minor inconvenience of caring for a pet anymore. Or worse they become a pest that wipes out whole local ecosystems.

Right has nothing to do with it. It’s about power and responsibility.

It would be irresponsible to release parrot into an environment that is not its natural habitat.

> I am not a parrot expert.

Then why are you giving advice on parrots?

They're parroting what they read on the internet.

No, we do not need more invasive species. Please stop giving terrible advise.

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