How To Get Covered in London Parakeets

October 18, 2017 4:18 AM

You will need an Oyster card, an apple, a sturdy constitution, and this Londonist guide to London's iconic feral parakeets.
posted by nerdfish (23 comments total)

Only ever heard the African Queen theory before.

...an Oyster card...

Nah, use contactless, then you can buy your apple with it too.
posted by Segundus at 4:40 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

"reveal your apple"
posted by idiopath at 4:48 AM on October 18, 2017 [3 favorites]

London isn't the only northern city with feral exotic birds. NYC has some too. I saw a flock of squawky green birds near Long Island Sound, about 15 years back.
posted by elizilla at 5:25 AM on October 18, 2017

London isn't the only northern city with feral exotic birds. NYC has some too.

Yes, there was a great article about them in the NYT years ago that I can't find a link for now, but there are several websites about them. See this article.

San Francisco also has feral parrots, as seen in the charming documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.
posted by briank at 5:40 AM on October 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

Quite a few in Brooklyn, Edgewater NJ, Fairfield, Ct - they're everywhere!
posted by blaneyphoto at 5:59 AM on October 18, 2017

The rose-ringed parakeet is the best-known feral parrot species, but there are many other species of feral parrots living in urban centres all over the planet by now. In France, one story is that they escaped from a container in the Orly airport in the 1970s, but it's probable that the population founders were pet birds that were released in the wild (accidentally or not) by their owners. Invasive animals arrive by diverse routes: Wikipedia has a short section about how raccoons came to Germany, France, Russia and Japan.
posted by elgilito at 6:00 AM on October 18, 2017

San Franciso and Brooklyn have large colonies.

I'm in Lisbon right now where there are also large flocks. My in-laws place is on a garden square and they often come and perch right in front of the windows. The distinctive squawk is how you know they are there.

According to Parrots Daily News, they are all over European cities. Amsterdam, cities in Germany have them as well.
posted by vacapinta at 6:00 AM on October 18, 2017

Parrots are pretty good at going feral, they're all over California, Arizona, Texas and Florida, and lots of different kinds. I saw a Monk Parakeet nest the size of a Mini Cooper in some electrical equipment at a sub-station in Houston once.
posted by Bee'sWing at 6:27 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's a sizable colony here in Manchester now - presumably the warming climate allows them to range increasingly northwards. (Head to Jackson's Boat on the Mersey for an almost guaranteed sighting.) (But don't be tempted by the pub grub there.)
posted by sobarel at 6:35 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Chicago has had them for decades, but their numbers are dwindling.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 7:06 AM on October 18, 2017

Funny thing about parrots and friends and Florida: There aren't all that many here in Miami. I've seen one or two in the wild, ever. Maybe they go hang out in the suburbs where I am only rarely. I've heard there are some out on Miami Beach, but again never seen them. If they are mainly escaped pets I suppose it makes some sense they aren't found near lower income areas.

Not a lot of small (smaller than a duck) birds in general around here, come to think of it. Plenty of feral chickens, though! Not many raccoons or squirrels, either, though I have seen one coon around occasionally since Irma.
posted by wierdo at 7:28 AM on October 18, 2017

wierdo: Go to South Beach on Lincoln Road. Around Meridian Ave., there's a giant tree of some sort. Around sunset, it's so full of these guys that it's deafening. Back in the 90s we had a date palm with fruit just outside our window, so we could see them feeding up close.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 7:58 AM on October 18, 2017

Just today I heard an old Jean Shepherd radio show from 1973 in which he reads a newspaper story about monk parakeets living wild in Detroit. I've seen the ones near Brooklyn College; no idea if there are still any colonies in Detroit.

Monk parakeets/Quaker parrots are one of the few species it's illegal to own in some Eastern states, because of their ability to survive and thrive and build giant nests at the tops of power line poles if they get loose.
posted by Devoidoid at 8:37 AM on October 18, 2017

I have parakeet stories!

1) The island upon which I am moored is where many of the African Queen location shoots were done. We haven't had much in the way of parakeets until this year.

2) I told my credulous cow-orker that since the colour scheme of my wedding was green we'd bought 1000 green parakeets and had been releasing several every week in the park where we were getting married.
When her boss told her that he'd seen Parakeets outside his flat she phoned me up in alarm to tell me my wedding birds has escaped. She still thinks that I was the source of the parakeets. Despite me telling her that it was a lie.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:55 AM on October 18, 2017 [3 favorites]

Madrid had flocks of parakeets in the city center and much less shy of people then the pigeons
posted by The Whelk at 10:30 AM on October 18, 2017

Burbank, California and Pasadena, Califoria (which aren't far apart; both are near or adjacent to Los Angeles) have feral parrot populations. My kids particularly enjoy the lone parrots that occasionally fly into a nearby tree branch, squawk at them obnoxiously, then fly back to the flock.
posted by davejay at 11:01 AM on October 18, 2017

The ebird bar chart for Florida lists more than 30 species of parrots. The most common are Monk Parakeet, Nanday Parakeet, and the Blue-crowned Parakeet. If you click on the name you'll get a map showing where they've been spotted lately.

And you probably shouldn't call someone a cow orker. They might get mad.
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:06 AM on October 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

I live near some in Brooklyn. The first time I ventured outside after an injury a couple years back, 13 of them were in the tree outside my house to welcome me! Never saw so many at the same time before or since.
posted by ferret branca at 1:11 PM on October 18, 2017

Saw a flock of something (Indian ring-necked?) in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam a few years back.
posted by Capybara at 3:35 PM on October 18, 2017

It's not just Burbank and Pasadena, we have them in mid-city LA as well.
posted by mogget at 9:30 PM on October 18, 2017

That's the funny thing about parakeets. They are 'all over California', but they really aren't. There are a good number of easily identified colonies, but outside these colonies, they do not exist at all. They are not like crows. You'll see lots of them near the Toys R Us in Sunnyvale, California (and they are pretty loud and squawky, so they are hard to miss), but won't see them anywhere else in the city, even two blocks away, ever.
posted by eye of newt at 9:45 PM on October 18, 2017

I live in London and our back garden and park sees a large flock of them going home to roost each night. It's a long and noisy process and I'd guestimate there's over 500 in this flock.
posted by stevedawg at 2:44 AM on October 19, 2017

Around 2001/02 I spent a lot of time on Hampstead Heath - I was the local newspaper reporter covering Hampstead & Highgate, so the Heath was squarely on my patch. These were definitely not a thing back then, I'm pretty sure they've arrived there since then. I still find it peculiar to see/hear them when I go back now.
posted by penguin pie at 6:32 AM on October 19, 2017