Parakeet Boom Reshapes Parks And Raises New Worries

If you walk through Richmond Park today, you might feel you’ve stumbled into a scene from a tropical aviary rather than a London royal park. A bright-green chorus now drowns the calls of native birds that used to define the sound of this ancient landscape. The ring‑necked parakeet population in Britain has exploded — roughly 25 times bigger between 1994 and 2023. Once largely confined to London and the Home Counties, these escaped or released pet birds, first noticed in the late 1960s, are now turning up in northern cities such as Manchester and Newcastle. The British Trust for Ornithology puts the current total at more than 30,000 birds, about 15,000 breeding pairs, with additional non-breeders uncounted. Rich, veteran trees make parks like Richmond ideal. Deep cavities provide nesting holes and an abundant diet of fruit, buds and flowers sustains large flocks. The result: a dramatic change to the park’s acoustic and visual character, and growing unease among conservationists. What’s less settled is whether parakeets are harming native species. Concerns range from displacement of cavity-nesting birds — starlings, nuthatches and some woodpeckers — to potential impacts on bats. Research in Belgium suggested nuthatches might be threatened by parakeet expansion, but a British follow-up study found no clear evidence of competition affecting cavity-nesters. Conversely, a Spanish study linked parakeet activity to a steep fall in noctule bats at a Seville park, with researchers finding injured and dead bats beneath roosts. Government attention has lagged. Defra’s most recent formal assessment dates back to 2011, when the UK parakeet population was around 5,000 and officials warned of risks to wildlife, crops, vineyards, infrastructure and disease transmission. With numbers now many times higher, any future intervention is likely to be more complex, costly and controversial. Madrid has already rolled out humane culling measures — shooting with air rifles, netting and egg sterilisation — to control large urban flocks. The UK has previously controlled another parakeet species when it threatened power lines on the Isle of Dogs. Scientists urge long-term monitoring before dramatic action. University researchers say short studies can’t capture how an adaptable species adjusts over years or decades. The wider lesson is familiar: small wildlife escapes can become big management problems if left unchecked. As the parakeet chorus grows louder, policymakers face a choice — fund thorough, long-term studies and updated risk assessments, or risk watching the scale of the problem make any solution even harder to deliver. --- Managing your business finances? TaxAce provides smart online accountancy services for UK businesses with flexible monthly plans. Image and reporting: https://www.theguardian.com | Read original article