Feral parakeets in Great Britain

Two ferals in Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens

Feral parakeets in Great Britain are wild-living, non-native parakeets that are an introduced species into Great Britain. The population mainly consists of rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri), a non-migratory species of bird native to Africa and the Indian Subcontinent, with a few, small breeding populations of monk parakeets, and other occasional escaped cage birds. The origins of these birds are subject of speculation, but they are generally thought to have bred from birds that escaped from captivity or were released.

The British rose-ringed parakeet or ringneck parrot population is mostly concentrated in suburban areas of London and the Home Counties of South-East England, and for this reason the birds are sometimes known as "Kingston parakeets" or "Twickenham parakeets", after the London suburbs of Kingston upon Thames and Twickenham. The parakeets breed rapidly and have spread beyond these areas: Flocks have been sighted in other parts of Britain. Separate feral rose-ringed parakeet populations exist in and around other European cities.

Parakeet in Gosforth colony, Newcastle, April 2021
Gosforth colony, Newcastle, April 2021