The flashing green plumage and shrill squawks of the Psittacula krameri, members of the parrot family better known as ring-necked or rose-ringed parakeets, have long been part of daily life around the parks, golf courses, university campuses and garden feeding tables of south and west London.
Now they have spread way beyond the M25 and M2 that once marked the extent of their presence in Britain. But if government scientists act on advice they are about to be given by parrot experts, that spread could be halted by the culling of flocks that settle in new sites.
The parakeets are a potential threat to crops and native birds. A four-year European research programme called ParrotNet, based at DICE, is about to present its findings to scientists at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The co-founder of ParrotNet, Dr Hazel Jackson, said the parakeets were “an urgent economic, societal and environmental problem”.
The squawkers are now making a noise in Milton Keynes, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and the Edinburgh-Dundee area. In Europe, parakeets have settled in more than 100 cities, and are found as far north as Estonia and Sweden. Scientists estimate the European parrot population at “a minimum of 85,000” but because they are spreading and breeding so quickly there could be many more than that figure, and there will certainly be in the future. There were an estimated 32,000 ring-necked parakeets in Britain at the last count in 2012.
“There is a potential for parakeets to cause a lot of economic damage, especially to fruit farms and vineyards,” said Jackson. “There have been problems around the Mediterranean and especially in Israel, where crops have been decimated by parakeets. The birds threaten local biodiversity as they chase away native birds from food sites, and exclude endemic birds and bats from nesting cavities. But people love them. Public perception is a big challenge.”
The findings of 25 to 30 core scientists on the ParrotNet project, which includes recommendations to remove legal and financial constraints on rapid-response eradication of new populations, especially in areas where they are currently not present, will be revealed at a conference in September.
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