Interesting long read in the Guardian this week about parakeets in England, telling us things we never knew about the birds which are a familiar sight and sound in these parts.
By 1895, London had 118 wild-animal shops, which fed a parrot fever (metaphor) that was curtailed only by a parrot fever (real): in 1929 and 1930, an outbreak of a parrot-borne bacterial infection called psittacosis caused widespread alarm. The episode generated Britain’s first parrot-panicked headlines: “Parrot disease”; “Parrot causes man’s death – wife in hospital”; “Don’t kiss ‘Polly’!” The resulting 1930 import ban tanked much of the country’s exotic-bird trade, and one parakeet expert has suggested that fear of the disease might also have caused some to release their birds. Such releases are likely responsible for the parakeets observed in Epping Forest in Essex two years later.
London’s avian founding fathers? Not quite. The Epping parakeets died. So did all the others. Our current abundance actually goes back to Britain’s postwar bird-keeping boom. Between 1947 and 1961, the number of pet birds rose from 600,000 to 11m. By 1971, a self-sustaining population of parakeets had established itself in Croydon. In 1986, Peter Lack’s Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland put the population at about 1,000. The birds soon expanded their range from strongholds in south London and Kent, and estimates in 1997 put the entire UK population at around 3,500 breeding pairs.
It was parakeets, remember, which were front and centre of the Wanstead Fringe artwork this year (the work of local artist Aaron Williams). The message was about sharing common space.
The article, by David Wingrave, concludes: “Are the parakeets ‘bad’? It depends on whom you ask. To fruit farmers, they are a growing pest. To nuthatches, they are a potential nest thief. But to many members of the public, they are a welcome addition to otherwise grey cityscapes and a reminder – more benign than, say, tick-borne steak allergies – of our changing world.”
Photograph: Bibby Binky
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