At the RSPB, we often receive emails of bird sightings from throughout the West Midlands, and recently we received an email from a gentleman and his eight-year-old son (already a dedicated RSPB member!) that had discovered a pair of ring-necked parakeets in Highbury Park. I was keen to investigate further.
Ring-necked parakeets are causing some controversy not so far away in the parks and back gardens around London. There are a number of fanciful theories as to how ring-necked parakeets came to make their home here in the UK.
Some say the birds escaped from a container at Heathrow airport, others say there were escapees from Shepperton Studios in West London during filming of The African Queen in 1951.
Another theory is that a pair was released by Jimi Hendrix in London in the sixties as a symbol of peace!
How does a bird that looks more suited to warmer climes cope in the UK? Any suggestion global warming might have something to do with the population explosion has to be dismissed.
They’re long-lived birds and in the 40-odd years that they’ve been in the UK, they’ve survived some very cold winters.
Parakeets originate from the Himalayan foothills so they don’t need it to be that warm to live comfortably. Parakeets are able to cope with the cold British winters, especially in suburban parks, large gardens, and orchards, where food supply is more reliable.
Partly, their success story is due to the wide range of foods they eat. Fruit, berries, nuts, seeds and household scraps, all of which are in plentiful supply in parks and gardens.
There is no evidence parakeets are adversely affecting UK birds such as starlings or woodpeckers. Research predicts they could affect nuthatches, but only where the two species have limited habitat in which to live.
At present, there are no known hot spots in the UK that fit this scenario.
Since they started breeding in the wild in 1969, the ring-necked parakeet has become London’s fifteenth most commonly recorded garden bird, and in Esher, Surrey, one roost has an estimated seven thousand birds. They are splendid to see and add a touch of exoticism.
So what does the future hold for the ring-necked parakeet? Could our parks and gardens here in Birmingham be the parakeets’ next stronghold?
Look out for them at feeders during October’s Feed the Birds Day and do let us know in January’s Big Garden Birdwatch if you see them in your garden or park.
Martin Feast, RSPB
