The Greater London area is home to thousands of parakeets. The population of feral ring-necked parakeets has grown from hundreds back in the 1980s to more than 30,000 according to the last count in 2012. The birds, native to Africa and India, are generalist feeders and seem to be well adapted to the urban settings and colder climate of southern England. The origins of the London parakeet population remain a bit mysterious, and a few popular theories exist—that Jimi Hendrix released a mating pair in the 1960s, for example, or that a flock escaped from a set during the filming of the Humphrey Bogart movie The African Queen, or possibly that a storm damaged several aviaries in the 1980s. The parakeet’s impact on local species is still not fully understood, and studies are ongoing.
The Parakeets of London
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![Two green parakeets interact in a park.]()
Read moreRing-necked parakeets, photographed in St. James's Park in London, England, on November 6, 2020 #
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![Three parakeets peek out of holes in a tree.]()
Read moreParakeets peek out of holes in a tree in Richmond, England. #
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![A flock of parakeets flies near rooftops.]()
Read moreA flock of feral parakeets flies near rooftops in London. #
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![A man feeds a ring-necked parakeet.]()
Read moreA man feeds a ring-necked parakeet in the snow at St. James's Park in London on February 8, 2021. #
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![A parakeet eats a cherry blossom.]()
Read moreA parakeet eats a cherry blossom in St. James's Park on March 19, 2021. #
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![A parakeet hangs, trapped in a net, as two people attend to trapped birds.]()
Read moreRing-necked parakeets are caught, ringed, and marked with red dye at Wormwood Scrubs by volunteers with the British Trust for Ornithology, as part of a project to try to better understand their behavior, on August 8, 2012, in London. #
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![A parakeet is silhouetted against the setting sun.]()
Read moreParakeets fly from their roost in Richmond Park on October 11, 2008, in London. #
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![A woman wearing a mask feeds parakeets in a park.]()
Read moreA woman wearing a mask feeds parakeets in London's Kensington Gardens on January 21, 2021. #
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![A parakeet eats a peanut.]()
Read moreA parakeet eats a peanut at St. James's Park on November 6, 2020. #
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![Parakeets perch on a tree.]()
Read moreParakeets perch on a tree in Richmond Park. #
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![Parakeets enjoy apples left on a tree in a park.]()
Read moreParakeets enjoy apples left on a tree in St. James's Park on March 8, 2021. #
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![A woman feeds a parakeet that is hanging upside down from a branch.]()
Read moreA woman feeds a parakeet in Kensington Gardens on January 21, 2021. #
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![A woman feeds parakeets in a park.]()
Read moreA woman feeds parakeets in London's Hyde Park on October 14, 2020. #
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![A flock of parakeets in an evening sky]()
Read moreParakeets fly overhead during a project to capture and ring some of the birds before releasing them on August 8, 2012, in London. #
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![Two parakeets fight over a bird feeder.]()
Read moreParakeets fight over a bird feeder in a private backyard in Carshalton Beeches, in London, on July 23, 2009. #
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![A close view of a parakeet perched on a girl's hand]()
Read moreA close view of a parakeet perched on a girl's hand #
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![People pose with parakeets in a park.]()
Read morePeople pose with parakeets in St. James's Park in London on January 9, 2021. #
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![A parakeet munches on a blossom in a tree.]()
Read moreA parakeet munches on a blossom in a tree in West London on April 27, 2016. #
Toby Melville / Reuters
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