Parakeets wild in South London

[whiffey]

There are several presumably escaped parakeets in the parks near me. A handsome sight too, flashes of green in the high treetops and that sound of the jungle !

Can anyone speculate how successful they might be living wild in South London ? They seem to be doing fine. Could they end up as numerous as pigeons or magpies, or even become a nuisance ?

[annavc]

There are loads of them all over the place and they've been there for years and years so are doing pretty well I'd guess!

This article is from a couple of years ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3869815.s tm

[whiffey]

Thanks for that annavc, I must have been going around with my eyes and ears shut, I have only noticed them in the last few months !

[shaneystar2]

We had a flock of them where I used to live in South west London ..lovely to see ..I miss them actually now we have moved .Noisy though.! Considering I now live in a fairly rural area I see less wild life than I did in London !
I think I remember reading somewhere that the biggest flock is round the Heathrow area.

[Cetti]

Hi whiffey!

Ring-Necked Parakeets are becoming a popular topic. This is from last Friday : http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Animals-and-Nat ure/Question316037.html

[Champagne]

I first saw some at Virginia Water lake about 4 years ago. They were a lovely sight. I've seen and/or heard lots since so they're obviously thriving!

They are the kind of birds that you used to only see in a cage, so it's nice to see that they can survive in the wild in the UK.

[WendyS]

I suspect that in time these birds are going to increaseto pest level. We live in South Bucks, near woodland, and over the past two or three years they seem to be increasing in number at a more rapid rate than any of our other native birds, so they are obviously thriving in the wild. They are lovely to see in sunlight with their flashes of green, and their cries are quite distinctive. We very occasionally see them in our garden trying to feed from the peanut cages, but my longer term fear is that they may drive away some of our other native birds like the rather shy black & white spotted woodpecker & the green woodpecker which come to visit us.