Rose-ringed parakeet

Name and taxonomy

The scientific name of the rose-ringed parakeet is Psittacula krameri. Psittacula is a small form of the Latin word for parrot. The second part honours Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer, a German naturalist. English speakers also call it the ring-necked parakeet or the Indian ringneck. Four subspecies are recognised, two in Africa and two in Asia.

The subspecies look alike, but Asian birds are larger and heavier billed. The pattern of red and black on the bill is the easiest way to tell them apart. Genetic work published between 2004 and 2019 found the African and Asian birds are not each other's closest kin. The Asian birds sit nearer to the echo parakeet of Mauritius. That study proposed a new genus, Alexandrinus, and some bodies including the IUCN now use it.

Evolution and relatives

The bird belongs to the order Psittaciformes, which holds all the parrots. Its family is Psittaculidae, the Old World parrots of Africa, Asia and Australasia. The genus Psittacula probably spread across southern Asia and reached islands in the Indian Ocean. The echo parakeet of Mauritius is the nearest living relative of the Asian birds. The Alexandrine parakeet is a larger cousin, and the two hybridise where both live wild.

Like other parrots, the bird has a hooked bill and two toes pointing each way on a foot. Like other parrots, it uses the bill as a third limb when it climbs. Its long tail and pointed wings suit fast, direct flight over open country. The Asian populations survive cold better, which probably explains why feral birds trace back to them.

Appearance

The body is bright green, the bill is red, and the tail carries a blue wash. Total length runs from 37 to 43 cm, and the tail takes 16 to 29 cm of it. African birds weigh 51 to 93 grams and Asian birds weigh 104 to 143 g. A heavy Asian bird can reach 174 g. The folded wing measures 14 to 16 cm in African birds and 15 to 19 cm in Asian birds.

An adult male has a black chin stripe and a rose-pink band around the hind neck. Females and young birds show no ring, or only a faint grey shadow of one. Males also grow longer tails than females. Captive breeding has produced blue, turquoise, olive, grey, white and yellow birds. The blue form is common in aviaries and replaces every green feather with pale blue.

Habitat and range

In Africa the species lives in a narrow band across the continent, between about 4 and 17 degrees north. That band appears to match the wooded savanna south of the Sahara. In Asia it ranges from the Indus valley in Pakistan east to the Irrawaddy in Myanmar. It also lives in Sri Lanka and in the foothills of the Himalaya. The bird takes to woodland, farmland, gardens, parks and city streets.

Few parrots cope with disturbed ground as well, so logging and building have not hurt it. Escaped pets founded colonies across Europe, the United States, South Africa, the Middle East and Japan. Florida, California and Hawaii all hold settled populations. Cities give warmth, garden fruit and bird tables, which lets the bird pass a northern winter. Fewer frost days and larger cities may push the range farther still.

Diet and feeding

Seeds and grain make up the bulk of the food, about 80 percent by one account. The bird also takes buds, nectar, fruit, nuts, berries, vegetables and insects. As with other parrots, it holds an item in one foot and works it with the bill. Flocks fly several kilometres to reach a ripe orchard or a grain field. The damage they do there makes them a serious pest in India.

Indian birds eat cereal grain, and they switch to pigeon peas in winter. Egyptian birds take mulberries in spring and dates in summer, and they raid sunflower and maize fields. Feral birds in Europe visit gardens and empty bird feeders of peanuts and seed. A winter pea crop helps a female build the reserves she needs to lay.

Behaviour and social life

The parakeet is social all year and feeds, flies and sleeps in company. Flocks of several hundred birds gather at a communal roost each evening. One London winter held three separate roosts of about 6000 birds each. The same roost serves the flock through the year, though it thins in spring when females sit on eggs. The species is active by day and does not migrate.

Birds are bold around nest holes and drive out much larger animals. In a Seville park they took over the tree cavities of the greater noctule, Europe's largest bat. Cavities used by the bats fell by 81% over 14 years, and many bats were killed. Attacks on black rats, a red squirrel and a Leisler's bat are on record from Spain, France and Italy. The bird also shows a daily torpor, dropping its activity for part of the cycle.

Communication and senses

The usual call is a rapid, ringing kew-kew-kew that carries a long way. A deep rolling note signals alarm, and a soft purring note draws the flock together. Chicks start with a single yakking call and learn the adult calls as they grow. Adults use three distinct calls with each other. A flock in flight is typical of the species, and people usually hear it first.

Both sexes can copy human speech after listening to a speaker. Hand-reared birds become tame and learn words readily. Their speech is unusually clear next to that of other talking parrots. Sight leads the search for food, and the eye carries a well-built retina with rods and cones. Colour vision probably helps the bird judge ripe fruit.

Reproduction and life cycle

In north-west India pairs form between September and December. A pair holds together for one season and usually takes a new mate the next year. Courtship starts with the female, who nuzzles her mate over and over. Breeding in winter lets the birds claim holes before other species want them. It also keeps the chicks clear of the monsoon.

The parakeet is a secondary cavity nester and takes over holes that other birds cut. Old woodpecker holes are a favourite, including those of the great spotted and green woodpeckers. Nests measured in one study sat high in a trunk and ran 37.8 cm deep. A clutch holds about four eggs, and the range runs from 1 to 7. Eggs are laid in February and March and hatch after about three weeks.

Chicks hatch naked and helpless, and both parents feed them. The young leave the nest about seven weeks after hatching. Parents keep feeding and guarding them until the birds are two years old. Both sexes are ready to breed at three, when the male's neck ring appears. A captive bird lived for 34 years, and the wild figure is unknown.

Predators and threats

Crows, owls, snakes and grey squirrels raid the nest for eggs and chicks. In London the birds are hunted by peregrine falcons, Eurasian hobbies and tawny owls. The only defence on record is a soft purr that keeps the flock together. Safety mostly comes from numbers and from a deep hole, as in other cavity nesters.

In the native range, trapping for the pet trade removes many birds. Farmers kill parakeets that strip a crop, and both pressures have thinned some local populations. A parrot form of hepatitis B has been found in the species and kills some birds. A protozoan parasite spread by flies and cockroaches can also be fatal. None of these threats appears to affect the species as a whole.

Population and conservation

The IUCN lists the rose-ringed parakeet as Least Concern, and its numbers are rising. A count across Europe in 2015 found 85,220 birds in 10 countries. The Dutch feral population in the four largest cities was put at 20,000 in 2021. Brussels holds as many as 5,000 pairs, and Cologne held about 3,000 birds in 2014. The British Trust for Ornithology estimated about 12,000 breeding pairs in 2022.

London counts show how fast the rise was, from about 500 birds in 1983 to 32,000 by 2012. The species carries no special status under CITES or United States wildlife law. Conservation concern probably runs the other way, towards the native birds and bats it displaces. Some people have called for a cull in Britain, but conservation bodies do not recommend one. New Zealand treats stray birds as a serious risk to its own parrots.

Relationship with humans

The parakeet has been a cage bird for more than two thousand years. Ancient Greeks kept the Asian subspecies and ancient Romans kept the African one. Pliny the Elder described a bird of this kind in the first century. The pet trade likely carried the species to every continent that people settled. Escapes from that trade built every feral flock alive today.

Owners seem to value the bird for its colour, its long life and its clear speech. Like other parrots, it needs company, space to fly and something to chew each day. Farmers see it differently, because flocks strip grain, fruit and stored crops. City residents appear to split between people who feed the flocks and people who resent the noise. Parrots can also pass diseases such as psittacosis to their keepers.

In culture and myth

London tells four stories about where its parakeets came from, and none of them is proven. One says birds escaped a film set at Isleworth Studios during the making of a 1951 picture. A second story points to a violent storm in 1987 that wrecked aviaries. A third credits Jimi Hendrix, who is said to have freed two birds in Carnaby Street. One points to a pet shop in Sunbury that lost birds in 1970.

Ornithologists prefer a duller answer, that many small escapes before 1971 added up. Disease scares in 1929 and 1930 and again in the 1950s pushed owners to release birds. The Hendrix story probably survives because it beats a slow leak from aviaries.

Parrots run through human art, music, humour and religious writing over many centuries. They turn up in the fables credited to Aesop and in ancient Chinese writing. In Roman tradition a talking parakeet was probably a luxury, kept and priced like jewellery. In modern British tradition, the London parakeet seems to serve as a mascot of the city's parks.