Take a walk through a London park at sunset and you're bound to be serenaded by a chorus of squawking. Gaze up, and you'll just about be able to make out the culprit: The UK's most recognizable exotic import, the ring-necked parakeet. 

They're native to Africa and the Indian subcontinent, but how did they get here? Theories abound. Some say Jimi Hendrix released a mating pair, named Adam and Eve, on Carnaby Street whilst recording parts of his final LP Electric Ladyland. Others say they escaped the set of the 1951 film The African Queen after filming wrapped at Worton Hall Studios in South West London. 

Experts say the truth is far less exciting – namely, the feral population grew from released pets. But what was once a rather niche London peculiarity has quickly spread nationwide. Since the mid-1990s, the ring-necked parakeet population in Britain has exploded by almost 2,700%, according to the British Trust for Ornithology.

The birds have even been spotted as far north as Glasgow. And while the Scottish climate might seem a world away from the tropical forests of India's Western Ghats, ring-necked parakeets are native to the Himalayan foothills too. Even a Scottish winter can't hold a candle to them. 

Speak to Londoners though and you'll find that the parakeets have, largely, been a welcome addition to the capital's skyline. And birdwatchers from Plymouth to Perth will no doubt be clutching their Collins Bird Guide with glee. But keep the champagne on ice, the ever-expanding parakeet population is a deeper issue than one might imagine.

The impact on native bird populations

The ring-necked parakeet is a generalist herbivore, meaning its diet is mostly made up of seeds and fruits. It spends much of the daylight hours foraging and returns to its roost at sundown – wherein lies the problem. 

Like a good number of native UK bird species, parakeets nest in tree cavities. Nuthatches, starlings, and woodpeckers are not only fellow tree-nesters – they're also considerably smaller. 

In 2021, the UK government conducted a review into its general licenses for wild birds in England. A general license, broadly speaking, is a 'license to cull' species of birds that are deemed a threat to local fauna and flora. 

Another species of parakeets, the monk parakeets, set alarm bells ringing back in the late 2010s amid a population boom. They were promptly added to the general license, but mainly because they build stick nests – and have a habit of building them on electricity cables. 

The ring-necked parakeets pose no such threat to the power grid, but the 2021 review did highlight a "medium-high strength of evidence for an impact of ring-necked parakeets on the conservation of wild fauna".

However, it's important to note that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' 2021 review of the general license for wild birds does not constitute an official risk assessment and that there are no immediate plans for reassessment. 

Essentially, the government thinks it could be a problem but the extent is still not known. 

"There have been some studies done elsewhere. There's one in Belgium that implied that the parakeets do outcompete nuthatches, and it has had a bit of a negative impact there. But over here, we've looked at that and there doesn't seem to be any sign of that happening yet", said John Carter from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). 

"Nuthatch is actually spreading in the UK and doing very well. So you wouldn't think those two things could match up together. And in Spain there was some research that showed that they're impacting on bats – a large species called noctule bat, which roosts in holes in trees, and the parakeets were evicting them. But again, we've not seen anything here so far." 

So, there's no evidential, widespread impact on native birds. 

But we may be at risk of missing the bigger picture.  

The climate effect

The summer of 2026 was provisionally the UK's hottest since records began in 1884. The second hottest was 2025. 

It goes without saying that, with climate change, comes significant changes to a country's flora and fauna. A report from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) said there's "clear evidence that changes in the UK’s natural environment consistent with climate change are already happening". And that report – Biodiversity Climate Change Impacts – was from 2015. 

As we've already established, the ring-necked parakeet is more than capable of thriving in the UK climate. They've thrived in the Himalayas for thousands of years. But the winter months tend to act as a natural 'firebreak' on population numbers, so to speak. A proportion of parakeets will die during the cold snaps, and those numbers have remained relatively stable for decades. But things might be about to change.

John Carter from the BTO added that "with increased mild winters, they've obviously been able to survive through that really really quite well. And with this increased warm weather, they can only benefit from that. They will probably continue to rise in numbers across the coming decades". 

It's a trend that isn't just limited to birds either. 

"We're seeing massive change in bird populations, and nature generally. Insects, plants and everything else, as a result of the changing climate. Some species are really benefiting from it. Some birds are basically colonizing the UK from the Mediterranean. As it gets hotter and drier there, they're coming here and they're establishing themselves quite readily." 

"But then, there are also those losers. Anything that evolved to be in a temperate climate or upland areas, they're losing out because they're getting pushed further north. And of course, it gets to the point where there is no more north to go to. So we will probably see extinctions in the not too distant future."

We started out asking whether London's parakeets are a 'friend or foe'. Whether they're a threat to local populations or a welcome addition to our city's skylines.   

The answer is seemingly more complex. They're neither. 

But as the climate continues to change, what was once 'native' to the UK may never be native again.