Great Britain Has a Huge Feral Parakeet Population

Great Britain has a large feral population of parakeets, with big flocks regularly seen flying through suburban London.

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Bright green parakeets are now a familiar sight in parts of Great Britain, especially around London and southeast England. These are mainly rose-ringed parakeets, a species native to parts of Africa and South Asia that became established in Britain after birds escaped or were released from captivity. Wild parakeets have been recorded in Britain since the nineteenth century, but a self-sustaining population became established around London in the late 1960s. Their numbers grew much more rapidly from the 1990s onward, and the birds spread into other parts of the country. Large flocks can now be seen in suburban areas, while smaller established populations occur in cities and towns farther north. Estimates of the total British population vary because different surveys count birds in different ways, but the scale of the population is clearly much larger than the occasional escaped pet. Their success is helped by their ability to use urban environments and a wide range of food sources. Scientists have also studied whether the birds compete with native species for food and nesting sites. Research has found that parakeets can disrupt the feeding behavior of smaller native birds, although this does not by itself prove that they are causing population declines in Britain. The exact history of how the modern population began remains uncertain, with escaped or released captive birds considered the most likely explanation.

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