Britain has been invaded by parakeets - and it's got nothing to do with Jimi Hendrix | Tim Blackburn

These exotic birds are common in the UK now. That raises many questions, some fears, and a fair few mythsTim Blackburn is professor of invasion biology at UCLWhat links a film starring Katharine Hepburn, Jimi Hendrix, bits of a plane falling on to Syon Park in London and the great storm of 1987? The answer is that they've all been proposed as the origin of one of Britain's loudest, most colourful and recognisable birds: the ring-necked parakeet.Parakeets are unusual among British birds in that they actually need an origin story. A century ago, there were none flying free in Britain and, as recently as the early 1990s, parakeets were relatively hard to find in the country. There were only a couple of reliable sites - the leafy Berkshire village of Wraysbury, or the trees around Esher rugby club in Surrey - where they would roost on winter evenings. Since then, their population has exploded into the tens of thousands. They've spread across the country from Plymouth to Aberdeen, and even over the water to Northern Ireland. London is their stronghold, though, and it's increasingly rare to venture outside without hearing their raucous cries or seeing their long-tailed silhouettes skimming the rooftops. Continue reading...