Often, it is the small, quirky things that make a place special. For me, one charming thing about the city of Orange is that we have flocks of wild parrots. They can often be seen in the morning or afternoon, flying in small groups of up to 20 or so, in the downtown area, particularly in spring and fall. You hear them well before you spot them because they squawk loudly as they fly, and roost noisily together in backyards.
The various fruit trees that are common throughout the city provide them with plenty to eat, and in our neighborhood, they are often seen in walnut, palm and avocado trees, and are particularly fond of the small berries of camphor trees, which are common landscape and street trees here. How they wound up here is uncertain; they certainly are not native, and are endangered in their native areas in Mexico and Central America. For some time they have been the subject of a fair amount of study.
In general, we find parrots amusing because of things like this, and like to ascribe a certain amount of nefarious intent to them, because parrots are intelligent and social, and the seemingly deliberate nature of their behavior makes it seem like they are up to something. We have one or two ornithophobic friends who are sure of it. All in all, though, they are really much less bother than the local crows and mockingbirds (but we are keeping a close eye on them).
(Our sincere apologies to the unfortunate young woman pictured herein)
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