Last updated: 3 January 2026
In a wooded setting, these Rose-ringed Parakeets look like escaped pets. At some point five to six decades ago, their forebears, at least in this part of Europe, were likely just that.
These photos were taken on a late afternoon in late August in the Vaugrenier Departmental Natural Park (Parc Naturel Departemental de Vaugrenier) in Villeneuve-Loubet, not far from Antibes. I followed what appeared to be a dozen or so flying noisily between two points in the park before they finally settled in this area where they patiently posed for portraits.
Finding, chasing and photographing these birds added a fun bit of exoticism to the hike through the park, feeding my novice impression that sightings of these bright green tropical creatures should be a relatively rare encounter in what is a suburban park. That impression was of course wrong.
Up until I began using the Merlin app on a regular basis a few months ago, I had no idea that such a large feral population of parakeets had gained such strong footholds in southeastern France (and in many other areas around Europe). Nice and Antibes have well established populations; since June (2025), Merlin has regularly identified Rose-ringed Parakeet calls in several urban spots between Nice and Antibes, including in and around the busy Nice Riquier train station. (See sighting update below.)
Research in 2021 estimates that at least 8,000 of these parakeets live in Paris and the surrounding area, nearly a four-fold increase from a 2015 Europe-wide count that found about 2,300. It’s believed those have likely descended from two Paris airport escapes, one in 1974 when about 50 bound for pet shops escaped from Orly and a similar number from another breakout in 1994 from Charles de Gaulle.
That 2015 Europe-wide count found 85,220 Rose-ringed Parakeets in 10 European countries, 7,250 of those in France. That number has grown significantly since. In the Netherlands the feral population was estimated to be about 20,000 in 2021, double the number from a 2010 count. Thousands live in urban areas in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Spain where these invasive species are doing considerable harm.
According to a study by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, invasive alien species cause €12.5 billion of damage to the EU’s economy annually. Parakeets specifically are damaging crops, competing with local birds for nesting and roosting cavities and displacing rare and vulnerable bat species. The Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets are most pervasive, but at least eight other species of parakeet are gaining footholds across Europe.
The study’s policy recommendations to manage existing populations include shooting (most cost effective), trapping (more socially acceptable), stricter regulation of possession and commercial trafficking and efforts to increase public awareness of their potential harms.
To-do list: find more recent counts and policy recommendations specific to France
Four images snapped at the same park on 30 December 2025:
And seven more images shot in the park in August 2025:
Update 26 October 2025 – I’ve seen flocks of up to a dozen several times in the center of Nice over the past week: in the Jardin Albert I Park, along Avenue Victor Hugo and in the Jardin Jean Moreno Park, so they’ve definitely carved out a niche here as well.
Update 10 November 2025 – I spotted several in the park across from the front entrance of the Milan Centrale train station.
Update 3 January 2026 – I’ve now spotted them regularly in more than half a dozen parks in and around the center of Nice. Lower temperatures in November, December and January don’t seem to frighten them off.
Photos above taken on 23 August 2025; post published on 23 September 2025, last updated on 3 January 2026.
More about the bird:
- Rose-ringed Parakeet at Birds of the World
- Rose-ringed Parakeet at BirdLife DataZone
- Rose-ringed Parakeet at eBird
- Rose-ringed Parakeet at Avibase
- Rose-ringed Parakeet at Wikipedia
- Rose-ringed Parakeet at iNaturalist
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A good article this, Bob, and some great photographs! We also have quite an established population of these parakeets, primarily in London and the SE. Some urban myths have (inevitably) sprung up about the origin of these birds here, which you’ve probably heard. One is that the UK population can be traced back to the film ‘The African Queen’, which was being filmed at Ealing Studios back in the 1950s. Another is that it’s all Jimi Hendrix’s fault for releasing a pair of parakeets in the 1960s, which went on to breed and multiply! More prosaically, there have been reports of parakeets (rose-ringed parakeets I should say) escaping from aviaries since the mid-1800s, so that eventually enough of the birds survived and reproduced to form the tens of thousands that are here now. In recent years they’ve begun to extend their range further north – right up to Scotland. They are quite hardy birds – I remember the BBC Springwatch from last year mentioning that a lot of parakeets originate from the foot of the Himalaya, although I’m sure the warming climate is benefitting them too. Despite all this, I’ve never seen one!
Ha! Thanks for that list of urban legends, great stuff – people blame Jimi Hendrix for the darnedest things. Keep the faith! I’m sure you’ll cross paths with one sooner or later.
We spent much of the afternoon in this same park again today and spotted at least a dozen so staying put here in the winter clearly has an appeal for them. They are large enough –and lound enough– to lend the illustion that they are in charge. But they do seem to be playful, or at least sociable. They were briefly sharing a tree with about a half dozen Magpies and all seemed to get along.