This Calif. metropolis’s unique chicken inhabitants exploded after aviary escape

In December 1977, a mud storm raged via Central California: 100 mph winds yanked bushes from their roots, crashed energy traces, and turned vehicles and vans into crushed tin cans rolling down the highway. The California National Guard in Bakersfield was activated and rescued 35 individuals huddled below a bridge. Several brush fires raged within the area, together with one at Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Vandenberg Space Force Base) that killed at least three people, together with the bottom’s set up commander.

A post-apocalyptic cloud swelled over the Central Valley, and the sky turned a ghastly yellowish crimson as smoke from bush fires and plumes of mud might be noticed from so far as 200 miles to the north in Stockton.  

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” Jim Hill, a Bakersfield-based CHP officer, instructed the Bakersfield Californian on the time. “I’ve been at this kind of work for 15 years, and I thought I’d seen it all … but nothing like this.”

Once the mud had settled in Bakersfield, the storm’s epicenter, lots of of houses and businesses started to dig out of the “thick, mustard-colored grit covering the city.” For one business, the Happy Bird Aviary, the roof had blown off, and it had misplaced every part — together with two breeding pairs of rose-ringed parakeets, a tropical, green-hued chicken native to southern Asia and central Africa.  

The newly freed birds may have migrated anyplace with a temperate local weather that suited them: Hollywood, Newport Beach, even south of the border — however within the wake of the storm, they stayed.

“Unlikely as it sounds, that’s the story I’ve heard,” Wendy Hodash, a spokesperson for the Kern Audubon Society, instructed SFGATE on Tuesday. “There are a lot. I couldn’t tell you how many.  

“And they kind of keep to the downtown area. I’m not quite sure why. They like the downtown area maybe because the trees are mature — it’s home to them.”

The parakeets, reported as we speak to have a population in the thousands, have change into Bakersfield’s unofficial chicken mascot — an unique, lovely creature that dots the panorama. 

The birds are sometimes mistaken for parrots due to their measurement. As adults, their our bodies are about 16 inches long, they usually’re marked with a crimson invoice, a rose-colored collar and an elongated inexperienced tail.  

Ask anybody round city, and also you’ll possible discover they know one thing in regards to the birds, a bit factoid that will or might not be true. More than this, although, the birds are seen as a relentless companion and a logo of what’s nonetheless attainable right here: a transplant that selected this a part of California to make their home, in opposition to all odds.  

“They’re everywhere,” stated lifelong Bakersfield resident Paul Powell, who was spending a part of his morning in Beale Park on a recent sunny early October morning. “Whenever I see them, I’m like, ‘Damn, there they are.’”  

Almost on cue, one of many parakeets flew from treetop to treetop towering over the pre-World War II craftsman houses and bungalows that make up the downtown-adjacent Oleander-Sunset neighborhood, which borders the park.

“They always surprise me,” Powell stated, gesturing within the course of the chicken. “It’s crazy.”

Because of their plumage, the unique birds are simply camouflaged within the tree cover. But it’s unimaginable to overlook them as they fly gently throughout the sky. Though non-native, they “do no harm,” Hodash stated. “They don’t have the characteristics of taking over a nest or eating other eggs — most people really appreciate them.”

If there’s something about them that borders on annoying, it’s their amplified name that’s clearly distinguishable from the dulcet coos of the native California quail and mourning dove.

“I think they’re very attractive. I love them,” Hodash admitted. “But they can be kind of a nuisance because they’re a little loud. Sometimes they hang out at the Bakersfield Racquet Club. People are trying to play tennis, and that might be annoying for them. But whenever I see one, I get my camera out.”

One metropolis groundskeeper, who was wrapping up alongside his morning crew at Beale Park, stated he often spots the birds a couple of mile east at Lowell Park.

“I haven’t seen them in a while. I used to see them all the time this summer,” Adrian Gastelum stated. “Actually, one of my co-workers just opened the storage room, and one flew out at him — gave him a little surprise.  

“It’s nice to see them. … They scare me though. One of my best friends growing up had parrots, and they bit me.”  

Those who had been spending the early fall afternoon at Lowell Park confirmed what Gastelum stated. Lots of birds had been hanging round there over the summer time, however because the climate began to shift and funky, issues modified.

“They’re not around as much,” stated Lewis Rodriguez. “But once in a while, when it gets cold — they keep a lower profile.”

Rodriguez’s sentiment is correct based on Hodash. The birds don’t migrate from Bakersfield; when the climate begins to show, they hunker down.

“They’re here all year long,” she defined. “I don’t know how they survive. It can get pretty cold inland. You see them, but they’re not as active. And you definitely hear them.” 
 
The Kern Audubon Society, which turned 50 this year, participates within the nationwide Christmas Bird Count. For greater than a century, birders from throughout have entered knowledge from between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 into the nationwide database annually, which may now be performed by way of an app.

The Audubon Society, along with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, additionally developed and oversees the eBird app, which allows customers to enter knowledge on birds noticed, together with location and photographs, any time of yr. Hodash stated the app possible provides birders and knowledge collectors essentially the most present image of the parakeets’ Bakersfield inhabitants.

And whereas the non-native inhabitants continues to thrive generations after their ancestors had been free of captivity by a freak climate prevalence, Bakersfield residents nonetheless marvel at their alternative of home.  

“I’ve never lived anywhere else,” Powell stated as he regarded up in time to identify one other parakeet crossing the sky. “It’s the surprises of this place, like these little birds.”