BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Ring-necked Parakeet

RING-NECKED PARAKEET
Psittacula krameri

Ring-necked Parakeet © Christine M Matthews

• Population
changes

• Productivity
trends

• Additional
information

Conservation listings

Europe: not evaluated (introduced)
UK: not listed (introduced)

Long-term trend

England: rapid increase

UK population size

4,300 individual adults in winter 2000/01 (Butler 2002: APEP06); further growth (Holling & RBBP 2007b)

Status summary

Following escapes and releases over many decades, this African and Asian parrot began breeding annually in the UK in 1969. Substantial but highly localised self-sustaining populations of this species have since built up, with the two largest being in the southern part of Greater London and in the Isle of Thanet, east Kent. Population modelling has revealed that populations in Greater London have increased by approximately 30% per year, and those in Thanet by 15% per year, but that the range has expanded by only 0.4 km per year in the Greater London area and so far not at all in Thanet (Butler 2003). A single roost site used each night by birds from throughout the south London range held 6,818 birds in August 2003 (Holling & RBBP 2007b). The species has already been reported causing economic damage to crops, as has occurred elsewhere in its native and introduced range (Butler 2003). A recent study in Belgium has identified negative effects on breeding Nuthatch, but not on other native hole-nesting species, such as Starling (Strubbe & Matthysen 2007).

Population changes

Table of population changes for Ring-necked Parakeet

Source	Period (yrs)	Years	Plots (n)	Change (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit
BBS England	11	1995-2006	34	522	202	1861
	10	1996-2006	37	424	189	1174
	5	2001-2006	61	104	21	215

Productivity trends

Productivity information is not currently available for this species

Additional information


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This report should be cited as: Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G., Barimore, C., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2009). Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2008. BTO Research Report No. 516. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends) Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2009