The "Who, What Why?" feature at BBC News has an interesting piece called "How do parakeets survive in the UK?" In it, they describe the proliferation of the ring-necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri) in British suburbia, a surprise to many that assume all brightly-colored parrots and parakeets are tropical. It turns out that ring-necked parakeets come from the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, so they don't mind the London climate (or the Belgian one, or the German one, or the climate in the Netherlands...). The page for the story also has two opportunities for public participation: a comment section that is now full of non-native bird sightings, and a photo gallery where readers have submitted their own ring-necked parakeet photos.
3 comments:
Don't forget the monk parakeets of Connecticut.
And Chicago.
Brooklyn had them first. First year I lived in Brooklyn in about 1982 there was a big spring snowstorm. I looked out in the tree in back and saw these enormous green things. It seemed surreal.
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