The Parakeeting Of London: An Adventure In Gonzo Ornithology by Nick Hunt — Review

An interesting and joyous investigation into London’s free-roaming ring-necked parakeets and the people who love them, hate them, or who plug their ears when they hear them

by GrrlScientist for Forbes | @GrrlScientist

NOTE: This piece was a Forbes Editor’s pick.

Two ring-necked parakeets eat an apple in Kensington Gardens in London. (Note: This image has been cropped.) (Credit: Matt Brown, Editor-at-large of The Londonist, CC BY 2.0)

If you live in or have visited London, you’ve probably seen or heard its parakeets. Originally from the Himalayan foothills of south Asia or the steaming equatorial jungles of central Africa, rose-ringed parakeets, Psittacula krameri, also known as ring-necked parakeets, are now resident in the greater London area, roosting in huge flocks that have spilled over into much of southeastern England, where they are now widely established.

How these lime-green parrots managed to get to London has, of course, been the subject of plenty of debate, and has inspired a variety of origin myths. Did Jimi Hendrix release a pair on Carnaby Street? Did they escape from the set of The African Queen in 1951? Or should we instead blame their presence on George Michael and Boy George? Or maybe the parakeets owe their freedom in London’s urban jungle to the Great Storm of 1987? There are so many origin myths in circulation that even a team of scientists investigated the mystery (more here).