HACKNEY residents are becoming fed up with the loud squawks coming from ringnecked parakeets in Clissold, Abney and Springfield parks.
Critics of the exotic bird, indigenous to Africa, have taken to the web to air their grievances. Dalston local Nicola Hilliard called them “so noisy,” while self-professed cultural commentator Robert Hanks tweeted that their “cheeping gets quite wearing”.
Time Out magazine deemed them “worthy of an ASBO (anti social bird order).”
Tim Webb of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warned of “new species being demonised” and rejected allegations that the parakeet is robbing native birds of their food and homes, saying: “There’s no empirical evidence, only anecdotal. In fact, it’s quite unusual for there to be real conflict between parakeets and other birds.”
However, Mr Webb admitted: “They start quite early in the morning. They will wake you up. They are very noisy and it probably upsets a lot of people.”
How these colourful creatures made it to London originally is still disputed, and a couple of urban myths have endured: that they escaped from Pinewood Studios during the filming of The African Queen in 1950, and that Jimi Hendrix released an Adam and Eve at a gig on Carnaby Street in the 1960s.
Since their arrival, the parakeets have thrived in the urban jungle, with the RSPB estimating there are now “upwards of 30,000” in Greater London alone. Because they are so at odds with the city’s other animals, the RSPB believes they are “exotic ambassadors for UK wildlife”.
And check out our interactive timeline of Parakeets in London
