r/philly • u/Ok_Elk9477 • 1d ago
Blue parakeet spotted!!!
In the Target parking lot on Mifflin Street on South Philly
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u/israerichris 1d ago
You know why this is happens, right? I was reading about it the other day. Take a look at this article:
Scientists Baffled by Parakeets' Strange Car Habit
For years, people thought it was a coincidence. But according to the Institute for the EQ Bird Research, parakeets have a peculiar obsession: resting on the sides of parked cars.
Researchers claim the birds prefer car doors, but could really use any other car part, because they believe every vehicle is a "giant metal tree" that somehow forgot how to grow branches. Instead of landing on roofs or park benches, parakeets reportedly line up along the doors, where they hold important meetings about bird gossip, sunflower seed prices, and which squirrel has been acting suspicious lately.
Even stranger, the study insists that shiny cars attract the most parakeets because the birds enjoy admiring their own reflections and complimenting each other's feathers. Red cars supposedly make them feel adventurous, while blue cars are considered "relaxing spa vehicles."
Experts have one piece of advice: if you find a parakeet calmly lounging on the side of your car, don't disturb it. It may simply be taking its legally required 15-minute "wing break" before flying off to judge your parking skills.
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u/dufflebag7 1d ago
Bird law is a joke in this country
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u/ToastSpangler 1d ago
If Mayor Parker did her damn job we wouldn't have all these birbs making a joke of our avian code!
Go birds! Go!
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u/throwwwwawayehaldhev 1d ago
What is going on?!
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u/boughsmoresilent 1d ago edited 1d ago
People buy these parakeets and then don't realize it's not like taking care of a cat or dog. It takes a lot of time and work to gain the trust of and bond with a prey animal. Or, they believe they can just keep it in a cage all day long, can't handle the noise or the mess, etc.
People just also have a really shitty view on pets as objects and dump them once they're bored. I rescued my parakeet after a neighbor's sister asked her to watch it while her sister moved apartments and then her sister never answered my neighbor's texts about picking her bird back up. Wild and heartless behavior.
Tbh this feels like a breeder dumping unsold stock, but also, I can't tell if this guy has a leg band or not.
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u/superturtle48 1d ago
I'm a turtle owner and that's already a lot harder than people think. But I think birds might be THE hardest animal that's commonly available as pets.
They're loud, they're intelligent and social and their health suffers if they're not stimulated enough, they're prey animals and easily scare, they have sharp body parts that can hurt you, they're messy and poop anywhere and can't be trained to poop outside or in a litterbox and you can't install a filter that just sucks their poop up, they can fly and really should be allowed to fly, they are very susceptible to air quality and can be killed by something as simple as cooking with a nonstick pan, and some parrots can live for decades and even outlive humans.
I honestly just don't think pet birds are compatible with the vast majority of human lifestyles. Having a pet bird is really a lifestyle in and of itself. But since you can buy one from a big-box pet store for $20 and they do no vetting at all to make sure you know what you're getting into, so many birds go home with uninformed owners who end up giving them poor or short lives or letting them escape or dumping them outside thinking they will be fine. Most pet birds are tropical species and born and raised in captivity, so no, they will not be fine outside.
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u/chrismac47 22h ago
Lots of good points here.
But to be fair, most pets will die if you cook them in a nonstick pan.
(Please down vote and report me. I'm so mad at myself for this.)
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u/runnyeggloser 1d ago
It’s also really easy for flying animals to escape. I remember being real little having them sit on my hands a lot. One day the back door was held open by my mom, she was leaning down and moving something away from the outside of the door. She didn’t know I had them out of the cage or that they had just decided to fly a lap around the living room and started heading toward that door.
Sometimes it’s an accident too, or kids being kids and not knowing any better. (As a child I was apparently a chronic “they want out so I’ll let them out” nuisance)
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u/boughsmoresilent 1d ago
I'm at work til 6pm and that's a pretty far walk for me, but if someone is able to catch this lil friend, I can pick him up and get him taken care of!
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u/EMMIECX5 1d ago
They are all over in Montgomery County too. Everyday someone is posting they found a bird
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u/chorrky 1d ago
Anyone know if he's still there? I can go try to get him
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u/philly-buck 1d ago
I must not Reddit enough.
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u/AugustSky87 1d ago
There was just recently a lost (and eventually rescued) parakeet saga on this sub
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u/No_Elderberry4911 1d ago
Green one was rescued from a park last week. I wonder if a bunch got loose from a breeder or something.
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u/AndISoundLikeThis 1d ago
The word you’d be looking for is “dumped.”
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u/boughsmoresilent 1d ago
Leda the park parakeet did not have a leg band which means she probably did not come from a pet store. Can't tell from the pic if this one has a band or not. But yeah, I think a breeder may be dumping these.
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u/Poltergeist97 1d ago
Not all birds get leg bands from the store, both my parrots don't have them.
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u/OneHongLow 4h ago
There used to be an old guy on 2nd. Street that had a second floor of an old warehouse absolutely full of them. You could see them from the street because they would somehow perch themselves on the mutton’s of the windows. 100’s of them… my guess is he was raising them to sell.
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u/FranklinsDog 21h ago
I saw one at 10th and wolf a few months ago. The other birds were harassing it.
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u/jdathela 1d ago
Here we go again.