Description:

These are Ring-necked Parakeets (also known as Rose-ringed Parakeet), a species that has well-established populations in parts of Surrey and Kent. While such exotic visitors may brighten up bird tables, their powerful beaks can damage expensive bird feeders and they may reduce feeding opportunities for native species.

The Ring-necked Parakeet has pale green plumage and the typically 'parrot-shaped' bill is a bright rosehip red in colour - quite unmistakable. There is a small black bib beneath the bill in the male, which extends back across the neck as a thin black line bordered by pink or orange. Ring-necked Parakeets have a long tail, obvious in flight, and a loud squawking call that is bound to attract attention

Ecology & Behaviour:

Many people are surprised to discover that there are several breeding populations of Ring-necked Parakeets thriving in south-eastern England, centred on south & west London and Thanet (Kent). Back in the 1970s these birds were known to be breeding in just four 10-km squares. Since then the population has grown in size, although it has not spread far from the main centres of population, with just over 2,000 individuals known to present during the last published winter count (September 1998). Because they are rather sedentary in habits, those Ring-necked Parakeets seen elsewhere in the country are most likely to be local escapees - and they can turn up just about anywhere.

Even though this species has been introduced from its natural range of central Africa and southern Asia, it has adapted well to the British countryside and climate, nesting in tree cavities and feeding on a wide-range of fruits, seeds and agricultural crops. Food put out on garden bird tables and in hanging feeders can be particularly inportant in the winter months when small groups of parakeets can be seen foraging together.

Garden BirdWatch links

Ring-necked Parakeets are one of the monitored by Garden BirdWatch and feature on the scarcer species forms.

An article on Ring-necked Parakeets appeared in Bird Table No. 8, in which Josephine Pithon sought help from BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatchers to discover more about this species.