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UK Rose-Ringed Parakeet
Population Dynamics
Parakeets roost together in trees at night. Gathering together at dusk and leaving at dawn. This provides an accurate means by which to estimate the population size, as if all roosts can be located, the entire population can be counted.
During the breeding season the numbers of birds roosting decreases as the females stay on their nests to look after their eggs and young. It is thought that the males continue to fly back to the roost at night. We can use the decrease in the amount of birds roosting to estimate the total number of breeding pairs in the population.
Roost Counts
Since January 2010 we have been counting the total population of parakeets in the UK using quarterly simultaneous counts across all known roosts. This involves volunteers standing at all of the roosts at the same time and counting the parakeets as they fly into the trees.
Parakeet flock flying to roost at Wormwood Scrubs Jan 2011
Roost Locations
10 roost sites have been located across Greater London and Kent. We carry out simultaneous counts at these roosts every 3 months with the help of volunteers across London.
Our next count will take place on the evening of Sunday 1st July 2012. If you are interested in helping to count at one of these location please let us know at: parakeet@imperial.ac.uk
Do you know the location of any other parakeet roosts?
A true roost is identified by the presence of 100-15,000 parakeets gathered together in trees after dusk, as they arrive and settle down the squawking is very loud. A roost looks like the photo below, where the parakeets fly in on mass at dusk and leave at dawn. If you see parakeets in the trees during the day it is unlikely to be a roost. Roosts need to have over 100 birds for us to count them.
For more information on reporting a roost see Get Involved.
Dusk at West Ewell roost, January roost 2010 (Ian Owens)
Thanks to a fantastic team of volunteers the counts so far have been a great success. We currently estimate the UK parakeet populations to be over 30,000.
We plan to continue the simultaneous roost counts during 2011 and 2012. This will allow us to see how the population changes during the year and across years.
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