Ring-Necked Parakeets (psittacula krameri)

I heard them first - a raucous high-pitched squeak - and realised I had the same noise the day before. Now it impinged on my brain that I had heard this particular sound in Bushy Park near Hampton Court. I began to scan the skies above the park looking for them, and saw 2 fly by at about 40ft. Their flight characteristics and long tail are unmistakable, and although in the evening light I could not discern any colour, I knew instantly what they were. I rushed indoors to tell my wife. "I've just seen two ring-necked parakeets in the park".

On one previous occasion, several years ago, I had seen one individual at our old house in Stanmore, so I knew they were in the area. By the end of the week there were six, including one slightly bigger than the others, and they began to visit the seed feeders in my back garden regularly, and bully the other more usual garden birds out of the way. I learned from other bird watchers that they were being seen in other parts of Edgware in gardens with well-tended seed feeders. The usual flock in the park was six, with a record one Sunday morning of thirteen birds. The larger bird was identified as an Alexandrine Parakeet (psittacula eupatria). Almost identical to the ring-necked, but about 15% larger with a longer tail and red shoulder patches.

So where had they come from, and how did they get here? There are several theories, and here are two of the most likely:

Ring-Necked Parakeets have been in the wild in Southern England for 30 years or more. Originally reported from Kent, it was thought that they might be escaped (or released) cage birds brought into the country by returning colonials or homecoming seamen (in the days when we still had a merchant navy). The birds paired up in Kent's many orchards, and have spread from there. 

Another theory was put forward by Bill Oddie in his series "Wild about Britain": Many thousands of the birds could be seen roosting in poplar trees in the Shepperton area, close by the River Thames. It is speculated that they could have been brought in from India for a film that was being made at the Shepperton Studios, and the escaped (or been released) following the filming.

Ring-Necked Parakeets are fruit eaters, and their natural habitat is the rainy foothills of the Himalayas, so it is easy to see how they can cope with the cool and damp British climate, with all those fruit trees in Kent and in suburban gardens in the London area. The rate at which their population has grown in recent years is testimony to that.

The birds that have arrived in Canons Park will probably be some of those dispersed from Shepperton following breeding. The adults force them out once they are fledged as the breeding territory can only support so many birds.

The birds breed in early spring around March. The flock of six was stable for a couple of years, but 2006 was a bumper year for them and there are now twelve or more, and I believe that they now breed in the park and no longer fly in daily from a roost in Preston Park, Wembley, where they have been established for several years.  The Alexandrine is no longer with them, though it is being reported elsewhere in Edgware. They come to my feeders daily at first light, and I now have to replenish the feeders daily. The birds cannot balance on the clothes line as well as last year and often hang comically upside down. Their movements on the feeders are different, and don't show the tricks we are used to. This leads me to speculate that the flock now contains new season juveniles fledged locally, and are not the same birds we saw last year. Now the hunt is on to find where they breed - there are plenty of suitable trees in the park's spinney.