The ring-necked, or rose-ringed, parakeet is the UK's most abundant naturalised parrot - it became established in the wild in the 1970s after captive birds escaped or were released.
It is a well-known resident of the greater London area, roosting communally in large flocks. The population has been increasing steadily, though it remains concentrated in south-east England. Birds are regularly reported elsewhere in Britain, and are likely to be local escapees.
The ring-necked parakeet's native range is a broad belt of arid tropical countryside stretching from west Africa across lowland India south of the Himalayas, where it is a common bird.
part of the problem. Parakeets are crevice-nesting birds. They make their nests early in the year and choose holes in tree trunks favoured by native species, including great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, owls and willow tits. Some conservationists fear that with such rapid expansion they are out-competing and, possibly, eradicating rare native birds by nabbing their nesting sites as well as their food, rather like the aggressive alien grey squirrel has decimated populations of the native red in the last two centuries. It seems logical that any such population explosion would upset delicate ecosystems.