About Us

Back in 2005, before SCP was conceived, our founder Brooke was working with Project Wildlife in San Diego. At the time, adult wild parrots that were brought into the PW Care Center were humanely put down, and nestlings were given to volunteers to keep as pets. Although these birds are very much wild animals, there was no protocol in place for their long-term care and eventual release back into the wild. That's when Brooke decided that she and her husband, Josh, would start a small rescue dedicated exclusively to the naturalized wild parrots in San Diego. Fast-forward a decade or so later, and SoCal Parrot has grown into a successful wild parrot rehabilitation organization. Since 2014, we have increased our intake and release numbers exponentially. We partner with other rescues throughout Southern California to ensure critical cases can be triaged or seen by an avian vet while they await transport to our facility in San Diego. It truly is a labor of love, and we are very proud of all that SCP has accomplished so far!

Meet Our Team

Brooke Durham

Founder | Director

After building a career as a successful professional portrait artist (photography), Brooke Durham suffered a career-ending injury to her spine, with permanent nerve damage. Years of rehabilitation later, Brooke began volunteering large amounts of time with a large local wildlife rescue center, where she was able to forget her own physical pain as long as she was focused on helping these often-forgotten members of the animal community.

Josh Bridwell

Co-Founder | Treasurer | Construction Guy

Josh has been an animal lover his entire life, but it wasn’t until his wife, Brooke, began volunteering at Project Wildlife that he was exposed to a diverse assortment of animals. After helping Brooke care for these animals, he also started volunteering at Project Wildlife. He soon became the Cage Building Team Leader due to his construction background. After several years of volunteering, it became apparent that Brooke and Josh’s true calling centered on parrots… and so, SoCal Parrot was born.

Dez Brooks

Operations Director

As a career wildlife rehabilitator, Dez (they/them) brings many years of experience in wildlife husbandry and medicine to the Operations Director role at SoCal Parrot. After working at wildlife rehab centers in Oklahoma, Virginia, and Oregon, interning at zoos in Colorado and Alaska, and earning their Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Oklahoma, they joined the SCP team in April of 2025. Dez is a Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator through the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council.

RESCUE

REHABILITATE

RELEASE

SoCal Parrot was founded to bridge the gap of care and consideration for wild, naturalized parrots. We are also a resource for wild parrot conservation, education, and protections. What does that mean? We rescue and rehabilitate wild parrots from Southern California, and release them back into the urban wild when they are healthy again. There are a LOT of facts about our local wild parrot populations, so we have compiled a list of some Frequently Asked Questions to help inform the public.

Rescue

Our facility is located just east of San Diego, but our rescue area spans throughout Southern California. From Imperial Beach to Pasadena and even up past Ventura, SoCal Parrot assists in the rescue of wild parrots from several different counties in the region.

Rehabilitate

At SoCal Parrot, we are dedicated to giving every wild parrot patient the best veterinary care and rehabilitation in order to be a candidate for release back into the urban wild. Parrots come into our facility because they are sick, injured or dying; we do our best to ensure they can recover and re-join their flock as soon as they are healthy.

Release

Just like every wildlife rescue organization, the goal for each patient is to eventually release them back into the wild. SoCal Parrot staff ensures each bird is microchipped and tested for infectious psittacine diseases before they are cleared for pre-release. The birds must pass our rigorous criteria before they can be released. We monitor flock locations to ensure all released patients are set up for success, and release them as a smaller flock to join up with their counterparts. Whenever possible, we reunite healthy juveniles with their parents.