The arrival of Rose-Ringed Parakeets in Norwich
The rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri), is undoubtedly the most widely distributed parrot species around the world. It originates in the Indian sub-continent but with substantial feral populations now existing at various localities in western Europe and on five continents. I have seen this species in a number of cities including Muscat in Oman, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rome – but with particularly large numbers now seen throughout central London. There are a number of ‘urban myths’ about how the parakeets first arrived in London, some of the favourites being that they were refugees from the film set of “The African Queen”, shot at Ealing Studios in 1951, while another is that a pair were released by Jimmi Hendrix on Carnaby Street in the 1960s. Most of these theories have been debunked, since there were reports in British newspapers prior to the 1950s.
The British parakeet 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. iNaturalist shows that they are now starting to spread throughout the country and have been recorded in many other cities, most notably Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle. They appeared relatively recently in Norwich, with a single individual being reported and filmed in 2017 (in Waterloo Park), but subsequently they have been observed at a number of sites across the city and their numbers seem to be increasing. They can be seen throughout the year at the Marston Marshes local nature reserve (nesting in the Poplar trees) south of the city centre, but also in the Hellesdon Road area and next to Marriott's Way, near to Wensum Park. You often hear their distinctive call before you see them, or you catch a glimpse of a head poking out of an old woodpecker hole.
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