Garden Wildlife
Garden Wildlife
Garden Wildlife
Garden Wildlife
.jpg "Ring-necked parakeet Photo: © Janet Fox with permission")
-_Foreplay_at_Hodal_I_Picture_0032.jpg "Ring-necked parakeet Photo: By J.M.Garg - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2975095")
What do they look like?
Unmistakeable from their calls as well as their appearance. They are quite large (40cm) birds, about the length of a woodpigeon, but much slimmer. They have bright green head and underparts, and deeper green wings. Their typical parrot beak is bright red. Male birds have a red and black ring around the neck which isn’t present in females and young birds.
What do they sound like?
A loud and quite high-pitched repeated squawk or shriek.
Ring-necked parakeet Psittacula krameria
Arguably the most exotic bird seen in some British gardens, ring-necked (or rose-ringed) parakeets are escapees from captivity that are now breeding prolifically in London, and spreading further afield.
What do they eat?
They are fruit, seed and nut eaters. They happily come to bird tables and feeders where they tend to scare off other species.
Where do they breed?
Parakeets are hole-nesters, generally taking over an existing woodpecker hole and are prepared to use large nest boxes. They start breeding very early, looking for nest sites in January and February before most other species, so have first choice of the best sites. Their single brood of up to 4 eggs is reared between March and June.
What do they do?
Ring-necked parakeets are noisy and boisterous birds, and you will definitely be aware of them if they are in your neighbourhood. They are strong and intelligent and dominate other birds. Their early nesting means they are successful in competition with other hole nesters like woodpeckers, and possibly a cause of their decline. They are very social and often assemble in large flocks at nightime.
Experiment on the effect of caged parakeets on the use of feeders by native birds in London showed parakeets do indeed inhibit feeding in native birds, but that the effect was less in places where parakeets are already present and other birds are used to their presence. The researchers suggested that it would be worth excluding parakeets from garden bird feeders with feeder-guards, both to help the native species and to reduce the rate of spread of the exotic birds.1.
How are they doing?
These parakeets are African-Asian in origin and are the most northerly breeding parrots in their native range, which must help their survival in chilly Britain. They are very popular cage birds, and their considerable intelligence helped them escape on many occasions. They are present in most western European countries, especially Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. They first bred in the wild in Britain in 1971, and have become common in London, and other centres, generally in cities, scattered to as far north as Scotland. There were thought to be 12,000 breeding pairs in 2016, and numbers are still increasing.
Reference
1. Peck, H.L. et al (2014) Experimental evidence of impacts of an invasive parakeet on foraging behavior of native birds. Behavioral Ecology (2014), 1–9. doi:10.1093/beheco/aru025
Finding out more:
BTO profile on ring-necked parakeet
RSPB profile on ring-necked parakeet
Page written and compiled by Steve Head
Luca Baghino, XC656331. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/656331.
Ring-necked parakeet Psittacula krameria
Arguably the most exotic bird seen in some British gardens, ring-necked (or rose-ringed) parakeets are escapees from captivity that are now breeding prolifically in London, and spreading further afield.
What do they look like?
Unmistakeable from their calls as well as their appearance. They are quite large (40cm) birds, about the length of a woodpigeon, but much slimmer. They have bright green head and underparts, and deeper green wings. Their typical parrot beak is bright red. Male birds have a red and black ring around the neck which isn’t present in females and young birds.
What do they sound like?
A loud and quite high-pitched repeated squawk or shriek.
What do they eat?
They are fruit, seed and nut eaters. They happily come to bird tables and feeders where they tend to scare off other species.
Where do they breed?
Parakeets are hole-nesters, generally taking over an existing woodpecker hole and are prepared to use large nest boxes. They start breeding very early, looking for nest sites in January and February before most other species, so have first choice of the best sites. Their single brood of up to 4 eggs is reared between March and June.
What do they do?
Ring-necked parakeets are noisy and boisterous birds, and you will definitely be aware of them if they are in your neighbourhood. They are strong and intelligent and dominate other birds. Their early nesting means they are successful in competition with other hole nesters like woodpeckers, and possibly a cause of their decline. They are very social and often assemble in large flocks at nightime.
Experiment on the effect of caged parakeets on the use of feeders by native birds in London showed parakeets do indeed inhibit feeding in native birds, but that the effect was less in places where parakeets are already present and other birds are used to their presence. The researchers suggested that it would be worth excluding parakeets from garden bird feeders with feeder-guards, both to help the native species and to reduce the rate of spread of the exotic birds.1.
How are they doing?
These parakeets are African-Asian in origin and are the most northerly breeding parrots in their native range, which must help their survival in chilly Britain. They are very popular cage birds, and their considerable intelligence helped them escape on many occasions. They are present in most western European countries, especially Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. They first bred in the wild in Britain in 1971, and have become common in London, and other centres, generally in cities, scattered to as far north as Scotland. There were thought to be 12,000 breeding pairs in 2016, and numbers are still increasing.
Reference
1. Peck, H.L. et al (2014) Experimental evidence of impacts of an invasive parakeet on foraging behavior of native birds. Behavioral Ecology (2014), 1–9. doi:10.1093/beheco/aru025
Finding out more:
Page written and compiled by Steve Head