In Britain, Game of Cat and Mouse Breaks Out Over Monk Parakeet

Authorities Move to Eliminate an Invader, But Supporters Rally to Its Defense

LONDON—Nobody knows how these birds got here from their Latin American homeland, or how they survive in a climate more suited to hot drinks and rubber boots than to tropical wildlife.

But the government considers Britain's feral monk parakeets—estimated population: between 55 and 87—a menace that requires radical control measures.

British authorities have compiled a long rap sheet of parakeet offenses, alleging that they are a potential threat to fruit crops and public safety. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, or Defra, is worried that the large, communal nests the birds sometimes build on electric pylons could cause power cuts. Not making life easier for the parakeets is their neighbor-rumbling screech.

Continued

London - parakeets - via Matt Salusbury

Matt sent me this for Watcher of the Skies

Cycling through Clissold Park in London's Stoke Newington, I heard and then briefly saw a flying parakeet. You can't miss their distinctive bright green colour. 

They've been around West London (especially along the wilder bits of the Grand Union Canal, and around Richmond Park) and North West London - Hampstead Heath – for some time now. I remember hearing that the ones in West London were Indian parakeets, and in West London they were Monk's parakeets. I've never seen them in South London, but I'm told they're now abundant round there too - Gypsy Hill, Burgess Park, etc. 

My Clissold Park sighting means they're now moving East - while Stoke Newington is an N17 postcode, it's in the London Borough of Hackney, which many Londoners would regard as the start of "East London." It's the first time they've turned up in a N postcode.