By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The exotic birds were hatched in the Mexican tropics but wound up as contraband headed to a swap meet in Los Angeles. They never made it because their smugglers couldn't get past border inspectors.
Now, U.S. and Mexican wildlife officials hope 90 parrots intercepted at the border will once again fly free.

After caring for the birds during a months-long quarantine – nursing many back to health – federal officials loaded them in cages onto the back of another pickup and drove them to the border, where Mexican wildlife officials took them back.

The lilac-crowned and red-headed Amazon parrots face another quarantine in Tijuana before biologists deem them hardy enough for a four-day trip by road to southern Mexico for release in their native areas.

The transfer at the Otay Mesa border crossing was the first time such numbers of exotic birds have been returned to Mexico from California in at least a dozen years, said Anne Perry, the federal prosecutor who handles such smuggling cases.

Most exotic birds seized at the border are sold at auction or donated to zoos or other nonprofit institutions. The birds represent a handful of those taken from their nests or caught in traps by poachers and then smuggled into the United States, officials said.

Many are sold in swap meets in Los Angeles and Riverside counties. Some of the more exotic birds sell illegally for $100 to $200 in Mexico and $400 to $500 in swap meets, officials said.

A legally imported parrot that has gone through quarantine or one bred in the United States sells for as much as $800 in pet stores.

The smuggled birds also may harbor diseases affecting birds and humans.

Although it is illegal to own a smuggled wild bird, authorities have a difficult time proving whether a particular bird was born free or in captivity. Therefore, they focus on smugglers rather than sellers, said Lisa Nichols, a Fish and Wildlife agent based in San Diego.

Agricultural officials suspect smuggled birds may have been to blame for the 2002 outbreak of exotic Newcastle's disease in poultry, which forced the destruction of 3.2 million birds in California, Nevada and Arizona, about 400,000 of them in San Diego County.

For every exotic bird that makes it to a border city such as Tijuana, five die in transit because of inhumane treatment, said Ricardo Castellanos, an agent with PROFEPA, the Mexican government's environmental watchdog agency.

The birds returned yesterday were among more than 170 seized in two border busts in August and October.

Most of the other birds were sold at auction or died, but several cardinals were released in an Arizona refuge. Smugglers in those cases pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in coming months.

People selling the birds crowd sidewalks in some Tijuana neighborhoods, Castellanos said, and three have recently been arrested. But the hawkers have a tight network, and when wildlife agents show up, the birds disappear within minutes, he said.

Customs officials say they frequently stop people who have purchased exotic birds in Mexico intending to bring them home as pets. They say the sellers often tell buyers to hide their purchases when crossing the border.

A few years ago, a woman crossing by foot at San Ysidro was discovered to have five birds taped to her legs when one of the birds fell from beneath her dress, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.