Feeding the green parakeets of London

I’ve written a few times about how Green London is, it’s (to some) surprisingly dry climate and that it is only fractionally under being a Subtropical city in fact it is suspected small districts are.

It’s not just my secret gardens or huge parks and commons that make London green but if it is the green parrots. Ring necked parakeets are all over the place in London. I frequently get them in my garden and see flocks of them if I go for a walk in the common. Tourists can see them too in the Royal Parks, St James Park in particular often seems to have them.

Their official name is Psittacula krameri and they are a medium-sized, green parakeet, the ring-necked parakeet is the UK’s only naturalised parrot and the most northerly breeding parrot in the world.

Ring-necked parakeets are originally from Africa and southern Asia and were kept as pets in the UK. They escaped into the wild, however, and have become naturalised in the south-east especially, aided by warmer winters. They nest in holes in trees in gardens and parkland, and are often found in noisy, roosting flocks of hundreds of birds. They eat nuts, seeds, berries and fruits.

Sometimes when one is walking through the parks you see the odd individual flying around and occasionally someone will be feeding them and one or two come and eat food out of their hands.

A few days ago I was giving a small Royal London tour and we came across a lady who was just finishing feeding the parakeets and she asked if we wanted to try. My tourists decided against it and in their defence, these parrots are wild and do have rather impressive beaks.

I’ve owned several birds as pets and love them at home, in the garden and the wild. My little dragons I call them and for some reason I always like the feel of their feet or claws on my hand. They are surprisingly warm and I like to think of them as little dinosaurs as perhaps they often said to be.

I put the nuts on the palm of my hand and was confident that they would be able to distinguish between food and myself, that is after all one of the few things they have to worry about in life.

It only took a few seconds before one came down and landed on me. It was amazing to have a wild bird come and eat out of my hand. I’d once had a huge bird or prey swoop down on me to collect meet which was also a wonderful experience but on that occasion I was wearing heavy leather protective gloves.

I’m not sure why birds have a reputation for being bird-brains as in my experience many are extremely intelligent. After I had finished feeding, a parakeet or two followed for a minute or so in the hope I had something else for them but alas for all of us, I had not.