Parrots

[karenbee]

Can anyone verify this please?
I was very excited today to see two green parrots land in my garden and thought this was extrremely unusual. However - a friend later told me his friend always has parrots in his garden! Is this usual - does anyone know?
Thanks
Karen

[Solomon]

I suppose it depends where in the world you live. :D

[karenbee]

OK - good point! I live in the UK about 10 miles from Central London. Nowhere near anywhere tropical. Or hot. Or sunny!
Any help?

[storye_book]

i'm guessing that what you've got is ring-necked parakeets, in which case there's information about london parakeets and a picture on the rspb website here
http://www.rspb.org.uk/england/southeast/london/features/parakeets.asp

if you've got some other type of parrot, please give us a description, and maybe one of us can find it in a bird book - might be interesting.

[karenbee]

I do actually have a photo of them that i took and to me they look like quaker parrots. They definitely didn't have a ring around their necks but could have been female. But i think if they were flying in a pair would have been a male and a female - no? Is there a way to attach the photo here? It needs to be highly enlarged!

[Shamal]

If they were W. London, R-N Parakeet for sure. More towards Borehamwood and that area, there's a few Monk Parakeets but these have suffered in recent years and now they are quite scarce.

If you want to attach a photo, post a reply (not quick reply) and below where you type is a 'manage attachments' section. Click this and a pop-up box will appear and you can browse to a photo on your pc. It needs to be no more than 800pixels along the longest length and less than about 200kb in filesize.

[karenbee]

Well actually I live in Borehamwood! As I said - it's not a great picture and will need enlarging. But if you can tell me what they are I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

[storye_book]

Well actually I live in Borehamwood! As I said - it's not a great picture and will need enlarging. But if you can tell me what they are I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

hi karenbee

i'm wondering if you've got escapee monk parakeets (myiopsitta monachus). it's a south american bird, but it's in my north american bird book (national geographic soc) because florida is full of escapees from captivity. but maybe quaker parrot is another name for monk parakeet. do you know its latin moniker?

the picture in the book is just like your photo, except that the description mentions an additional 'diffuse yellowish band across belly' which doesn't show in your picture.

i brightened up your picture a little (see attached), but if there is a yellowish band, it still doesn't show up. it says 'adult is green above with greyish face and throat. breast is grey with whitish barring [. . .] in flight it appears dark below except for paler face and throat. call is a loud, staccato shriek. length 11 and a half inches or 29 cm.

there are some pictures of monk parakeet here
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=monk+parakeet&btnG=Search+Images

according to this american website, monk and quaker parakeet are one and the same bird
http://www.monkparakeet.com/index1.htm

for myself, i'm pretty sure that you're right, and you have monk/quaker parakeet escapees, which may or may not survive in our climate. is anyone feeding them, do you know?

[Shamal]

I didn't realise Monk's were also called Quaker Parakeet. Nice one, looks like they are still hanging around in that part of the world.

Like I said, they were the dominant Parakeet of that area but in recent years the flocks have dwindled, so not quite as sucessful as the more well know R-n Parakeet.

[karenbee]

I don't know if anyone is feeding them. Do they need any special type of seed? Or feeder? If so - I'll get whatever they need and maybe I will see more. Several people who live round here now say they have seen parrots. Personally - if that's the case I'm quite insulted it's taken them nearly 3 years to visit me! That's how long I've been feeding birds! Any feeding suggestions welcomed. Thanks everyone for the feedback.
Karen

[storye_book]

hi karenbee

i've just rung the rspb wildlife queries dept
[Tel: 01767 680551
Website: http://www.rspb.org.uk/ (http://www.rspb.org.uk/) ]

they were very helpful, saying that these birds will eat anything that birdfeeders put out for other birds, including peanuts etc, and that they especially like fruit, e.g. apples, cherries, plums and wild fruit.

they also suggested that these birds naturally roost in large groups, and if this pair of monks/quakers has not teamed up with the ring-necked parakeet flocks, they will get too cold at night in a harsh english winter.

i understand that, ideally, if you were to get hold of a parrot-cage, and leave it in a sheltered spot in the garden with the door open and food inside, and IF they are tame uk-bred birds with ringed legs, they'll will naturally want to go back in a cage and indoors during winter.

however, i'm told that if they are a pair of those unfortunate wild birds which have been trapped in south america, imported and then set free, they won't want to go in a cage, and it's just pot luck whether they will team up with other parakeets and survive the winter by communal roosting.

if this is of interest, they have very kindly offered to give you further advice etc, if you would like to ring the above number. there is also an email query facility on the website.

good luck, and please let us know how you get on (have you spotted any leg-rings?)

[storye_book]

hi shamal

sorry my previous reply didn't acknowledge your input about monk parakeets - i hadn't spotted your message - so i went and repeated info that was already up. oops.

meanwhile the rspb has just seen this page and the pix (i sent them the link), and they've just emailed me these 2 paragraphs:

"I think your identification is correct, monk parakeets have been a popular cage and aviary bird in the UK and have been released or escaped and subsequently naturalised in certain areas, as has happened in the US. They are also known as gray-breasted or quakers but share the same Latin name of myiopsitta monachus. They are colonial and have been seen in mixed flocks of ring-necked parakeets in the south east and will eat seed, nuts, fruit and even insects.

"One thing i forgot to mention which could be quite useful is to contact parrot line on 01754 820107. This is an advisory service which can help with all parrot problems here in the UK, they may also have been alerted if anyone has lost a pair recently. However, i think it is far more likely that these are naturalised birds that have descended from original escapee's in the UK."

it's nice to know there's a parrotline - it would be interesting to hear the end of this story.

[Shamal]

hi shamal

sorry my previous reply didn't acknowledge your input about monk parakeets - i hadn't spotted your message - so i went and repeated info that was already up. oops.





No problem.
Here's a page on the herts bird club site by the infamous Lee Evans, though it is a little out of date and doesn't cover the decline in recent years. It even has detailed maps of their favored spots in Borehamwood.
http://www.hertsbirdclub.org.uk/monkparakeets.html

[Marcus2879]

Quick post on the above topic so I hope you get the e-mail notification and sorry for dragging it up.

I've been monitoring the flock as it were for a few years now as I live in borehamwood. Quite often recently while walking along the brook or the village ( anyone from the Wood will know what I mean) you can hear that very distinctive crythat they have. Yes over the last two or three years the numbers have dwindled but given the noise that they have been making recently we should hopefully start to see them a little more often.

Without being to specific the brook is the best place to be able to hear them and if you know where you are looking spot them.

Ta

M

New member signed up today to post on this topic following a news point on the bbc news website.

[karenbee]

Hi everyone
I didn't get any email notifications about this continued thread so sorry I haven't replied to anything. Thanks to Marcus for his latest input - what was the BBC news website article that made you sign up? Just curious! I live quite close to Aberford park but have not yet heard the parrots. In fact I haven't seen them for 3-4 weeks. But they did start visiting in larger groups - most I saw was a group of 5 I think. And no - I didn't notice any rings round any of their feet. I am hoping with the longer days comoning, I will see more of them. The Lee Evans article is very interesting although they have obviously spread because a friend says he has seen them in Elstree - which is the wealthier side of town! Perhaps they are getting more expensive taste!! They seemed to quite happily eat sunflower seeds and the high energy mix and I think the fatballs too.
I shall try and remember to keep looking at this as I missed all of posts since my last post until yesterday.