There are wild populations of exotic birds all over the UK – they’re acclimitised and now wild
These are rose ringed parakeets (also known as ring necked parakeets), they are escapees from the latter half of the 20th century.
It used to be that they were only really ubiquitous in London, but in recent years they have more and more strongholds up north, too, like in Newcastle and Glasgow.
A few years ago there was a study using geographic profiling to map the sightings of parakeets since their appearance in the UK. There are a bunch of urban legends about how they came to be, but the study strongly suggests that people kept them as pets and just kept releasing them when they got too noisy (and since you have photographed them, you know they are indeed noisy). You can read more about the study [here](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/dec/parakeet-crime-map-busts-bogart-and-hendrix-myths).
The ones here are descendants of a subspecies native to the foothills of the Himalayas, hence why they are pretty well adapted to the changing weather. They are super versatile, incredibly smart, and will eat almost anything. They also have few natural predators in the UK*, so you’re only going to see more of them as time goes on.
* /u/Dismal_Fox_22 corrected my out of date knowledge (thanks!) and pointed out that some raptors now are predating them increasingly after the COVID lockdowns. See [this study from KCL](https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10445). For context, those predators are typically neophobic (they do not eat prey they do not understand), and for a long time did not widely prey on these parakeets, but it seems they are doing so now.
Some escapees bred well and now they’re well established in London. Noisy things they are!
I’m not really into birds, but I think it’s an egg my friend!
Parakeets are naturalised to the uk now, and have been here for several decades. They’re fairly far north too, not just down south.
I’ve heard several (and all very different) origin stories for the London Parakeets, it seems like it’s one of those constantly evolving urban legends. This blogpost mentions the three most common ones: [https://bugwomanlondon.com/2024/07/11/so-where-did-londons-ring-necked-parakeets-come-from/](https://bugwomanlondon.com/2024/07/11/so-where-did-londons-ring-necked-parakeets-come-from/)
Ring-necked parakeets. They’re surprisingly common in the UK. Originally brought here as pets but I believe they’re prolific breeders and have become pretty widespread.
Escaped parakeets have survived and bred in southern England. Legend has it that many are descended from a pair released by Jimi Hendrix
They are Parakeets we have lots in our parks near where I live in Sheffield
We have them in the East Midlands now, too.
Seen them in Manchester as well.
Eggs. 🙂
Had a bunch of these land on top of my conservatory the other morning, and they were drinking out of the gutter. I was a little confused, never seen them in the wild before. They’re beautiful.
They were sold in pet shops in the early nineties I remember as I really wanted one back then but now they literally cover all the trees in SE LondonÂ
They’re all over London. There’s a documentary on BBC on Thursday about Wild London that will almost certainly talk about them.
Eggs
I a couple in a Milton Keynes park just before Christmas. I guess like a lot of Londoners they’ve been priced out of the capital.
I saw one flying over a residential street in South Liverpool a few weeks ago, they’re very eye-catching.
Parakeets – they also love englefield green a lot
Probably the sky
I think David Attenborough’s new Wild London show is going to cover the parakeets. BBC One New Years Day.Â
Irrespective, they are all immigrant birds of the Parakeet kind. And they are most welcome in this beautiful land known as ENGLAND……. Only, I wish they’d brought some sun 🌞 with them at this time of the year…….
Bird eggs, I’d imagine
They’re definitely getting way more common around north London. I only used to see them on Hampstead Heath, but this year they’re suddenly all over the place. In my back garden too, hogging the bird feeder -__-
Pic 3 belongs on r/birdsfacingforward.
Controversial, maybe, but I love them.
They’re friendlier than they look and will happily share the feeders with magpies, tits and woodpeckers, but they’re also very messy eaters so they sprinkle crumbs all over the ground for the birds who prefer to eat from there, like robins, dunnocks and pigeons.
I’ve also seen them telling grey squirrels in no uncertain terms to fuck off, and while they’re doing that the little lads get their fill from the hanging feeders.
They’re like hi-viz clad bodyguards for the smaller birds.
Loud as fuck, but so pretty and good-natured.
Life… uh… Finds a way…
It’s a parakeet.
They have been all over london for decades now (rumour has they were released during a wedding at some point).
It’s not surprising they are popping up outside the capital.
Oh my god another Maidenhead person!
Where have you been? These are very common in the South east and have been for years now and are slowly getting around the country
Yeah, heard they were all along the watchtower. Good old Hendrix
It’s an Indian ring parraqueet. They are everywhere in south London
I lived in southern Spain for a year – I can ***hear*** these pictures.
Eggs originally
Birds.
Go to Wycombe and find yourself some Glisglis too 😀
We have 3 in Shoreham by sea West Sussex. Stunning to look at, but their call is very annoying.
THE SKY.
I’m not sure what the collective noun is for parakeets but there was an orgy of them in my tree this morning, getting drunk on rotten apples.
Not sure where then headed off to but looked like it was going to be a hell of a party
There’s reports of them in London as early as the 1800s
They are all over the south of the country. If you look for them you’ll see everywhere .
47 comments
There are wild populations of exotic birds all over the UK – they’re acclimitised and now wild
These are rose ringed parakeets (also known as ring necked parakeets), they are escapees from the latter half of the 20th century.
It used to be that they were only really ubiquitous in London, but in recent years they have more and more strongholds up north, too, like in Newcastle and Glasgow.
A few years ago there was a study using geographic profiling to map the sightings of parakeets since their appearance in the UK. There are a bunch of urban legends about how they came to be, but the study strongly suggests that people kept them as pets and just kept releasing them when they got too noisy (and since you have photographed them, you know they are indeed noisy). You can read more about the study [here](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/dec/parakeet-crime-map-busts-bogart-and-hendrix-myths).
The ones here are descendants of a subspecies native to the foothills of the Himalayas, hence why they are pretty well adapted to the changing weather. They are super versatile, incredibly smart, and will eat almost anything. They also have few natural predators in the UK*, so you’re only going to see more of them as time goes on.
* /u/Dismal_Fox_22 corrected my out of date knowledge (thanks!) and pointed out that some raptors now are predating them increasingly after the COVID lockdowns. See [this study from KCL](https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10445). For context, those predators are typically neophobic (they do not eat prey they do not understand), and for a long time did not widely prey on these parakeets, but it seems they are doing so now.
Some escapees bred well and now they’re well established in London. Noisy things they are!
I’m not really into birds, but I think it’s an egg my friend!
London
Maybe the South London parakeets spreading west?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain
Parakeets are naturalised to the uk now, and have been here for several decades. They’re fairly far north too, not just down south.
I’ve heard several (and all very different) origin stories for the London Parakeets, it seems like it’s one of those constantly evolving urban legends. This blogpost mentions the three most common ones: [https://bugwomanlondon.com/2024/07/11/so-where-did-londons-ring-necked-parakeets-come-from/](https://bugwomanlondon.com/2024/07/11/so-where-did-londons-ring-necked-parakeets-come-from/)
Ring-necked parakeets. They’re surprisingly common in the UK. Originally brought here as pets but I believe they’re prolific breeders and have become pretty widespread.
Escaped parakeets have survived and bred in southern England. Legend has it that many are descended from a pair released by Jimi Hendrix
They are Parakeets we have lots in our parks near where I live in Sheffield
We have them in the East Midlands now, too.
Seen them in Manchester as well.
Eggs. 🙂
Had a bunch of these land on top of my conservatory the other morning, and they were drinking out of the gutter. I was a little confused, never seen them in the wild before. They’re beautiful.
They were sold in pet shops in the early nineties I remember as I really wanted one back then but now they literally cover all the trees in SE LondonÂ
They’re all over London. There’s a documentary on BBC on Thursday about Wild London that will almost certainly talk about them.
Eggs
I a couple in a Milton Keynes park just before Christmas. I guess like a lot of Londoners they’ve been priced out of the capital.
Really pretty, but dear lord they are noisy!
https://preview.redd.it/hdxqbgc82eag1.jpeg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0bfbb88f0b3881401021eb34949dc02a7a432365
We get them in East London too. Here’s one who managed to get into my attic a little while ago.
The two on the left are from Bray, the one on the right is from Godalming.
Supposedly descendants of jimi Hendrix’s pet parrot (this is probably bollocks, of course).
There are about a billion of them in London .
There have been a few posts on Reddit of parakeets in the UK occupying a tree and they look like leaves from afar
https://preview.redd.it/t0kn9omp3eag1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=437c1828360bfaa4c1e792f2d4793bd543238920
So cool lol
I saw one flying over a residential street in South Liverpool a few weeks ago, they’re very eye-catching.
Parakeets – they also love englefield green a lot
Probably the sky
I think David Attenborough’s new Wild London show is going to cover the parakeets. BBC One New Years Day.Â
Irrespective, they are all immigrant birds of the Parakeet kind. And they are most welcome in this beautiful land known as ENGLAND……. Only, I wish they’d brought some sun 🌞 with them at this time of the year…….
Bird eggs, I’d imagine
They’re definitely getting way more common around north London. I only used to see them on Hampstead Heath, but this year they’re suddenly all over the place. In my back garden too, hogging the bird feeder -__-
Pic 3 belongs on r/birdsfacingforward.
Controversial, maybe, but I love them.
They’re friendlier than they look and will happily share the feeders with magpies, tits and woodpeckers, but they’re also very messy eaters so they sprinkle crumbs all over the ground for the birds who prefer to eat from there, like robins, dunnocks and pigeons.
I’ve also seen them telling grey squirrels in no uncertain terms to fuck off, and while they’re doing that the little lads get their fill from the hanging feeders.
They’re like hi-viz clad bodyguards for the smaller birds.
Loud as fuck, but so pretty and good-natured.
Life… uh… Finds a way…
It’s a parakeet.
They have been all over london for decades now (rumour has they were released during a wedding at some point).
It’s not surprising they are popping up outside the capital.
Oh my god another Maidenhead person!
Where have you been? These are very common in the South east and have been for years now and are slowly getting around the country
Yeah, heard they were all along the watchtower. Good old Hendrix
It’s an Indian ring parraqueet. They are everywhere in south London
I lived in southern Spain for a year – I can ***hear*** these pictures.
Eggs originally
Birds.
Go to Wycombe and find yourself some Glisglis too 😀
We have 3 in Shoreham by sea West Sussex. Stunning to look at, but their call is very annoying.
THE SKY.
I’m not sure what the collective noun is for parakeets but there was an orgy of them in my tree this morning, getting drunk on rotten apples.
Not sure where then headed off to but looked like it was going to be a hell of a party
There’s reports of them in London as early as the 1800s
They are all over the south of the country. If you look for them you’ll see everywhere .
Comments are closed.