Parrot adoptions at the scenic Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary are few and far between for a flock of reasons, founder and director Jamie McLeod explained.
“Unless you’ve owned a parrot before, it’s hard to understand what you’re getting yourself into. It’s a wild animal,” McLeod told the Sun. “You have to realize that when you take a wild animal into your house, that they are going to exhibit behavior that is natural to being in the wild. When the cockatoo screams at 120 decibels—and your neighbors complain about it—that’s his natural voice.”
Although McLeod’s local nonprofit has rigorous screening and application measures for each adoption case, some parrots repeatedly end up back at the bird sanctuary, which functions exclusively as a parrot rescue despite its broad-sounding name.
McLeod considers the number of times a parrot’s been rehomed when determining if she should add it to the sanctuary’s “forever flock,” which currently consists of about a dozen permanent residents she’s taken out of the adoption pool.
The property’s total parrot population consists of more than 50 cockatoos, macaws, and other parrot types, which McLeod said puts the facility over full capacity.
“Even if a bird has gone out three times and come back, I’m not going to condemn them to ‘forever with me,’” McLeod said. “But some are rehomed so many times, and I can’t keep doing it to them.”
One of the sanctuary’s most recent adoption cases involved a 25-year-old parrot McLeod said she nearly “gave up hope of finding an appropriate home for,” due to behavioral issues, she explained.
“That bird had gone out three times. Because of that bird’s level of aggression, I never thought I’d find somebody that would be willing to take her on after a full disclosure that this bird can hurt you pretty badly,” she said. “I have to be up-front.”
But the full disclosure didn’t faze the troublesome parrot’s new owner, McLeod continued. In September, someone stationed at Vandenberg Space Force Base visited the sanctuary in hopes of adopting a feathered companion.
“They clicked. The guy just clicked with her. He’s military, and he grew up with birds,” McLeod said. “I guess he’d been through bird boot camp already. No bird was going to scare him, and I didn’t want to deny her that opportunity.”
After he applied, part of the sanctuary’s consideration process included making sure his home and planned bird enclosure space could accommodate the parrot, according to McLeod.
“We may elect to visit your home, or you may need to send us a video of your home, including the cage you have,” she explained. “We got videos and photographs of his cage and his home and he knew what he was doing because he’d grown up with birds. … We’ve been checking in and so far so good.”
McLeod said that the sanctuary usually checks in with new parrot parents and their recent adoptees at least once a month shortly after successful adoptions.
“He’s a younger man, which is a plus as well because [parrots] live a long time,” added McLeod, who described him as roughly around the same age as the parrot he adopted. “Hopefully they’ll grow old together.”
One of the most common reasons a parrot becomes rehomed is that it outlives its owner, as some parrots can live for up to 80 years or longer, McLeod said.
A tab on the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary’s website outlines the preemptive steps someone can take if they wish for the nonprofit to inherit their pet someday.
“It has to be discussed well before your death,” McLeod said. “We ask that people send us a copy of what’s stated in the will, as well as a filled-out relinquishment form that details out everything about their pet they would want us to know.”
With an exhibitor’s license similar to zoos and other animal facilities, the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary is open to the public most days of the week. There are also opportunities to sponsor certain parrots through periodic donations, while gaining special visitation perks and frequent photo updates about the bird or birds you choose to support.
“When you come and visit you might strike a fancy with a specific bird and want to contribute to that bird’s upkeep,” McLeod said. “It’s like being a grandma. You get to come and hang out and then when it’s time to go home, you can leave them there because they scream louder than children.”
Before starting the parrot rescue in 2004, McLeod was a prolific bird breeder throughout the 1990s.
“I worked privately and out of my home, breeding birds and selling them for a decade,” she said. “It became apparent after about a decade of that, that there was really more of a need to be rehoming unwanted birds than to be bringing more creatures into the world that live potentially 80 years and have the mentality of a 2-year-old child the whole time.”
McLeod’s dedication to looking after parrots, especially those with violent behavior tendencies, led to a crucial ultimatum from her ex-husband, she explained.
“I was told by my partner: ‘I can’t take this anymore; it’s either me or the birds,’” she recalled, “and he was surprised when I picked the birds.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 23 – Oct 30, 2025.