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Polly wanna...City Park?

Posted on: Thursday, 6 February 2003, 06:00 CST

Polly wanna...City Park?

source: Associated Press Strange News

SEATTLE - Seward Park, long known as a nesting site for a couple of pairs of bald eagles, has become the home of a growing colony of very noisy parrots.

No one knows how the long, emerald-colored birds with red freckles first arrived in the Seattle park, a peninsula jutting into Lake Washington west of Mercer Island.

Some believe they are former house pets that escaped from their cages or were released by owners seeking peace and quiet.

Naturalists believe the parrots are nesting in large dead trees that can provide warmth when the birds huddle inside. Park visitors have reported them dining on discarded apples and wild salmonberries.

"They're another Seattle oddity," said Christina Gallegos, Seward Park's naturalist.

Similar types of parrots native to South America have made themselves at home in Hyde Park in Chicago and in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The birds can develop a vocabulary of 40 to 50 words and sell for about $400 when there's a buyer — which isn't often because "they're just obnoxious," said Gayle Peters, owner of Just Parrots Etc. in Renton.

"Believe it or not, people buy these birds and get fed up," Peters said. "Then they just leave them outside."

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Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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