Parrot?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

testka

House Bee
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
103
Reaction score
0
Location
London/Essex border
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
15
While inspecting one of our hives - in sunny East London - we came across this bird in a tree. Seems a bit exotic for London. Any ideas what it is?
 
Something crossed with a pigeon?? I am ducking to prepare for the bricks thrown my way...:D
 
Seems a lot bigger then a parakeet. Also the underside of its wings are a bright red colour.
 
"Alexandrine Parakeets

These are much less frequently encountered in England, although some sightings may have been lost because it is easy to confuse identification with the more common Ring-Necked. Flocks of Ring-Necked parakeets sometimes comprise an Alexandrine too. Alexandrines are essentially natives of India but stretch in a band from Afghanistan through to Indochina.

Male/Female and adult/juvenile variations as well as mutations and perhaps the effect of differing diets all serve to confuse identification but the Alexandrine is, at 60cm a significantly bigger bird than the 42cm Ring-Necked. In addition, the Alexandrine has a bigger bill with both upper and lower halves coloured red. Alexandrines have a red shoulder patch which the Ring-Necked parakeets do not - but in the field you may not be able to see this."

Possibly - they have been known to interbreed with other parakeets and the one you have spotted may well be a hybrid ...
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top