Rose-ringed parakeet

Rose-ringed parakeets eat seeds, nuts, fruit and berries.

In cities, they visit bird feeders in gardens.

Rose-ringed parakeets eat mostly seeds and grains, along with fruit, berries and nuts. Animal Diversity Web says about 80 percent of their food is seeds.

In Britain, they are regular visitors to garden bird feeders, where they eat seeds, nuts, fruit and fat cakes. Because they also eat crops and stored grain, farmers in some places see them as pests.

Animal Diversity Web describes a mainly granivorous diet, with about 80% of food seed-based, and notes that the species is viewed as an agricultural pest that can damage crops and stored grain. The RSPB lists fruit, berries, nuts and seeds.

In Britain, the BTO reports regular visits to bird tables for seed, nuts, fruit and fat cakes, with garden use throughout the year peaking in November and December (BTO Garden BirdWatch), and says crop damage has already been reported there, as elsewhere in the native and introduced range (Butler 2003). The Florida atlas notes that birds may fly up to about 12 miles (19 kilometers) a day between breeding, feeding and roosting areas.

Rose-ringed parakeets fly in noisy flocks.

At night, hundreds sleep together in trees.

Rose-ringed parakeets are social birds that often travel in flocks. At night, hundreds of them can gather to sleep together at a roost, and they use the same roost all year.

They adapt well to towns and cities. In Britain, they started breeding every year in 1969, and the BTO says the birds breeding there are the most northerly breeding parrots in the world.

The RSPB notes flocks that can reach hundreds at a roost site, and Animal Diversity Web describes a communal roost used all year, though fewer birds use it in spring when females stay on their nests.

The BTO says the species began breeding annually in Britain in 1969 after escapes and releases over many decades, with the largest populations in Greater London and the Isle of Thanet, Kent, and later colonies in cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham. It describes these birds as the most northerly breeding parrots in the world. A study in Belgium found negative effects on nuthatches, which also nest in holes, but no such effect has yet been found in Britain (Strubbe and Matthysen; Newson et al. 2011, via BTO).

There are lots of rose-ringed parakeets.

In some new places, people worry they take nest holes from other birds.

The rose-ringed parakeet is listed as least concern. Nobody has counted them all, but they are common in their native lands and their numbers seem to be growing, because they adapt well to farms, parks and cities.

In places where people brought them, scientists are studying whether the parakeets harm native birds, for example by taking their nest holes. In Britain, the BTO estimates about 12,000 breeding pairs.

BirdLife International assessed Alexandrinus krameri as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 12 June 2024, published 2024). The population is unquantified but reported as common to abundant in the native range (del Hoyo et al. 1997), with an estimated 100 to 10,000 introduced breeding pairs in Japan. Although tree cover in its mapped range fell by about 19.9% over three generations, the IUCN suspects an increase because the species is highly adaptable to human-made and urban habitats. It is reported as used in trade at a high prevalence, appearing in three of seven trade datasets (Donald et al. 2024), is not a migrant, and has a generation length of 9.98 years.

In Britain, the BTO estimates around 12,000 breeding pairs and the RSPB gives 8,600 pairs; as a non-native species it has no UK conservation status, and the BTO notes concerns about possible environmental and economic effects.