| After weeks of rain the clouds parted to allow a few hours of sunshine so we headed off to the local park to check up on the Ring necked Parakeets.
Their natural range includes the foothills of the Himalayas so surviving the winter in Manchester isn’t a problem. This year we’ve even managed to provide a Monsoon. |
 Ring necked Parakeet in Stenner Woods, Didsbury – one of the more regular haunts. Normally up to 12 birds can be seen at any one time before they head off towards the city centre to roost. |
 Although strictly speaking they’re feral its difficult not to admire them. |
 Normally heard before being seen with patience they will allow very close views. |
Just saw one of these ring-necked parakeets eating the fat-balls we put out for the birds on a tree in our garden. We are near Didsbury Park and at first we were concerned someone had lost a pet however thanks to this blog now we know there is a wild population on our doorstep.
The bird looked healthy (and beautiful).
Thanks to you for the information on your blog – it was a real treat to see an animal so exotic and then to find out that our local bird population is even more diverse than we realised.
Hi, I live in Whalley Range and have been hearing and occasionally seeing parakeets in my back garden (which overlooks a council allotment and is near a cycle track/wildlife corridor) for the last four months. They number between 1 and 10 – on Friday 13th February I saw between 8 and 10.
They seem to be attracted to nearby apple trees and fruit bushes in the allotments.
This morning I saw a tough little Robin face off against a parakeet who was nibbling an apple on the top branches of a tree. The parakeet seemed to be amused and unperturbed by the Robin, but the Robin clearly wanted him to GTFO. In the end the Robin gave up because the parakeet started to ignore him.
In surrey they have a population of 50k + of these parakeets. I lived there for a while so was very nice to see them in manchester area.