Posh Pigeons, London Pests or Parrots, if you live in the capital you must have seen or at least heard these green screaming banshees. Not sure what I’m talking about? London is now home to thousands of ring-necked parakeets.
When out walking the dog I usually hear them first as they shriek from tree to tree, then catch a flash of green as they speed past. I don’t know if they’re just trying to warm up, but they seem to fly faster than indigenous birds. Their numbers are booming, but why? Could it be global warming? Whatever the reason there seem to be a plague of them about town.
So, I hear you asking where the hell did they come from? This is where the story gets a little murky. Some claim they are the descendants of birds that escaped from Isleworth Studios during the filming of the movie ‘The African Queen’ which starred Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. But that was made in 1951, and I’m sure I never saw the little pests when I first moved to London.
Another bonkers theory is that Jimi Hendrix released a breeding pair during the 1968 Summer of Love.
A more likely explanation is that they are just escaped pets, which have somehow adapted to our rigorous climate.
Some would like to wring the necks of these ring-necked parakeets but not me; they don’t seem to bother other species and with winter on its way, they add a little tropical colour to our sometimes monochrome city.
A Little London Life 
Nothing like this would surprise me. In London Borough of Bexley there’s a community of birds that look something like a mixture of Flamingos, Storks, and Pelicans. Can anyone explain how they got there? Perhaps their species is listed on http://www.rspb.org.uk/groups/bromley/places/443170/
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