Feral parakeets in Great Britain

in Kensington Gardens|alt=One on a bird feeder in Kensington Gardens, London Most ornithologists believe that the original birds probably escaped from aviaries before 1971. Sporadic breeding pairs were recorded as early as 1855 and in the following decades, but these did not spread and are not ancestral to the modern feral population, which originated by the 1960s. In a 2019 Journal of Zoology study, geographic profiling based on NBN Atlas data revealed that the largest populations of parakeets before 1980 were in the Croydon and Dartford areas. The same study consulted the British Newspaper Archive, and suggested that outbreaks of psittacosis (also known as "parrot fever") in 1929-30 and the 1950s may have caused many Britons to abandon their pet parakeets, eventually giving rise to large feral populations. In later decades, heightened popularity of parakeets as pets and the subsequent increase in accidental escapes may have been to blame, lending some credence to the theory regarding aviaries in the Great Storm of 1987. In terms of geographic origin, the British rose-ringed parakeets are of hybrid origin between the two Asian subspecies, P. k. borealis and P. k. manillensis. Several urban myths explaining the origin of the birds have also been published in newspapers: • Parakeets that escaped from damaged aviaries during the Great Storm of 1987 • A pair of parakeets released by Jimi Hendrix in Carnaby Street, London, in the 1960s • A number of parakeets that reportedly escaped from a pet shop in Sunbury-on-Thames in 1970 ==Population in Britain==

such as Rochester, Northfleet, Gravesend, and Shorne and increased in numbers over the following decade, eventually spreading east into Medway and north into marshland areas. Small populations likewise became established in Surrey towns adjacent to London and in Wraysbury and Old Windsor in Berkshire. Outside of the greater London area, secondary feral populations became established in Greater Manchester in the mid-1970s and in Merseyside in the early 1980s. Individuals were also recorded over the 1970s in the Cuckmere Valley of East Sussex and the Chichester Harbour of West Sussex. By the 1980s and 1990s, the northwestern populations largely died out, although the groups elsewhere remained stable and tended to increase, with several new colonies becoming established. The overall population by the mid-1980s was estimated at 1,000 individuals at a minimum, of which 300 lived in London. 4,000-4,500 by 2000, British rose-ringed parakeets are most common in the south-east of England, including London suburbs, Surrey, Kent and Sussex, and in South West England, including Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. Parakeet populations have also been reported further north in Liverpool, Oxford, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. A roost count on 22 November 2025 of the population in Newcastle totalled 360 birds. Due to population growth and the relatively quick spread throughout Britain, estimates of parakeet numbers within the country vary. According to the London Natural History Society, in the early 2000s the largest population of rose-ringed parakeets was believed to exist in the South London suburbs, where the birds roosted principally in Esher Rugby Ground, Esher until 2007 (Esher Rugby Club named its women's team "The Parakeets" in a tribute to the birds). In 2017, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) estimated there to be around 8,600 breeding pairs in Britain. The rose-ringed parakeet is scientifically monitored by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and, as of 2022, estimate about 12,000 breeding pairs. ==Ecological impact==

Concerns have been raised by Hazel Jackson, an expert in invasive species and conservation at the University of Kent, over the impact of the growing numbers of rose-ringed parakeets in south-east England. Parakeets have been shown to deter smaller birds due to their behaviour and noise; their large size means that they often crowd small bird feeders, further increasing competition for resources and disrupting local ecosystems. The detrimental effect of competitive exclusion has been likened to the impact of the introduction of grey squirrel on the red squirrel. However, rose-ringed parakeets do have natural predators native to Britain: ornithologists have observed an increase in the population of birds of prey in London, and have reported sparrowhawks, peregrine falcons, and hobbies preying on parakeets. Feral monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) were subsequently also covered by the licence. In March 2021, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stated that no cull of the ring-necked parakeet population in the UK was planned. == See also ==