The California population trend was not established in California until after the early 1970s, with great increases taking place mainly in the late 1980s and 1990s (Garrett 1997).

Numbers appear to be increasing in the San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley, and the Los Angeles Basin. This parakeet tends to be associated with cultivated date palms and Silk Floss Trees (Chorisia speciosa). I anticipate these to continue to increase, as they are not exploiting all of the available suitable habitat. Also, the trees that this species are associated with have been used extensively in recently built strip mall parking lots and housing subdivisions, and the trees have not reached maturity. (Mabb 2002)

Distribution in California: Los Angeles basin south to Palos Verdes Peninsula and east to southwestern San Gabriel Valley (Garrett 1997); possibly established (along with White-winged Parakeets) in San Francisco.

Habitat in California: Urban and suburban areas with exotic flora, especially silk-floss trees (Chorisia speciosa), palms, and eucalyptus (Garrett 1997).

Other Naturalized Locations: Naturalized in southern Florida (Smith and Smith 1993). Introduced to Lima, Peru and Puerto Rico.

Click an image below to view at a larger scale. Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri) Photos this page courtesy of ©

Native Range and Habitat: Mainly south of the Amazon region, from Bolivia and eastern and southern Brazil to Paraguay and northern Argentina (Forshaw 1989). Open woodlands, savannas, subtropical forests, towns (Brightsmith 1999).

STATUS: Least Concern -- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 3,400,000 km 2 . The global population size has not been quantified, but it is believed to be large as the species is described as 'common' in at least parts of its range (del Hoyo et al . 1997). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. (BirdLife International)

For more information, visit the Yellow-chevroned Parakeet - BirdLife Species Factsheet published by BirdLife International.

Description: As versicolurus, but general plumage green; lesser and median wing-coverts with olive tinge; greater wing-coverts yellow; primary-coverts and primaries bluish-grey; secondaries green; bill brownish. Immatures as adult, but greater wing-coverts interspersed with green; top of upper mandible blackish.

Average Length: 8.5 inches