#COVID-19 can’t stop care of San Francisco’s wild parrots

Some of San Francisco’s most colorful characters are sick — but not even a pandemic can stop those who try to nurse them back to health.

A handful of the famed wild parrots — whose squawks and colorful plumage grace the city’s streets — can never be re-released into the wild after being poisoned by bromethalin, a popular rodenticide, according to SF Gate.

Unable to survive on their own, the sickened parrots — also known as cherry-headed conures — rely on volunteers who bring the birds into their homes to care for them.

Sarah Lemarie is currently taking care of eight such chatty creatures: April, Lyon, Beale, Clay, Julian, Mooshi, Capp and Guerrero.

As chief operations officer of the nonprofit bird rescue Mickaboo, Lemarie has helped transition the organization online as the coronavirus swept through, limiting operations.

“I was trying to take a personal sabbatical,” she told the news outlet. “My plan was to take a year off and get some sleep and read and exercise. But with COVID changing the context of Mickaboo’s operations so significantly, it was fortunate I had the capacity to help.”