Kingston parakeets

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (May 2008)

There are estimated to be at least 6,000 Ringnecked Parakeet (psitticula kraneri)--often referred to as the Twickenham or Kingston Parakeets--flying wild in the South London suburbs. Their specific origins are unknown, but most likely they originated from a single pair of breeding parakeets which escaped or were released in the mid-1990s. Other origins, however, have been attributed to them: the most popular theory is that they escaped from Ealing Studios, West London, during the filming of The African Queen in 1951; they may have escaped from an aviary during the 1987 hurricane; and it has even been suggested that the pair released by Jimi Hendrix in Carnaby Street, London, in the 1960s, is to blame.

[edit] Parakeets in Britain

Escaped parakeets have been spotted in Britain since the 19th Century, the first recorded sighting 1855. The numbers remained very low, however, until the mid-1990s, when the population appeared to start increasing more rapidly. While parakeets have been spotted as far north as Manchester, they are most common in the South East of England and the largest population (6,000 in a single flock) is believed to exist in the South London suburbs where, until 2007, the birds nested principally in Esher Rugby Ground (known locally as "Grists"), Twickenham. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) estimates that there wll be a population of 50,000 wild parakeets in Britain by 2010.

[edit] "Ownership" Controversy

Locally, there is some dispute over who "owns" the (wild) parakeets. Are they the "Kingston Parakeets"--belonging to Kingston upon Thames, on the south-side of the river--or the "Twickenham Parakeets"--belonging to Twickenham, on the north? While the birds are more often referred to as the Kingston Parakeets, their more regular nesting-ground appears to be in Twickenham. They have also been referred to in print as the "Norbiton Parakeets" and the "Jewels of Chessington".

[edit] Parakeet Mythology

Various myths have been attached to the Kingston / Twickenham Parakeets, most of which are modern and local, though widely recognised; some have their origins in the 19th Century or earlier. Of the most popular, and most likely modern, is the belief that a sighting of two or more parakeets in the garden predicts a good growing year ahead. A single parakeet is believed to be bad luck--a belief stretching back to the mid-1800s. It's said that two parakeets predicts marriage; three parakeets, a birth; four parakeets, a divorce.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3869815.stm

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/treehouse/19548-ring-nect-parakeet-psitticula-kraneri.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1550997.ece