From the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3869815.stm
Seems that colonies of parrots and parakeets are nesting and breeding in the south of England.
This really surprises me. A short conversation with my English co-worker confirms that it does indeed get below freezing duting the winter there.
I thought that parrots and such were tropical birds, and couldn’t survive freezing temperatures. Am I wrong, or is southern England not getting to freezing during the winter these days?
A quick Google throws up species of parakeet that live in Nepal and Tibet - which I find more surprising still!
I guess they’ve adapted.
Kind of like the Borg.
Restistence is pretty bird!
They mention monk parakeets (also known as Quakers, at least in the U.S.) in the article. There are flocks of monk parakeets building nest-colonies in Connecticut and New York City, among other places. They have such a propensity towards nesting outside that in some states they are considered “nuisance birds” and are illegal to keep as pets.
Awwk! Shiver me timbers! Awwk!
Maybe they are Norwegian Blues? Beautiful plumage.
There are wild Parrots in San Francisco too, for that matter.
Parrots do okay in temperate zones if they can find food, a flock, and shelter in the harshest weather. Food is the hard one. George bird has demonstrated to me that wild parrots are fine with snuggling into insulated material. They are also happy to enlarge existing flaws in any standing wood into a nesting hole or shelter. I am sure the mountains of Peru (his native stomping grounds) have regular snow. However, wild parrots cannot type worth a darn, no matter how they peck your keyboard, so please excuse the spelling.
One of the more common species to be found naturalised in Britain is the ring-necked parakeet (I’ve seen these flying free in Kew Gardens); some colonies have been around for quite a while.
Chicago, Illinois has long had a colony of parrots in Hyde Park - and it gets WAY below freezing in this area, for weeks at a time.
If parrots (various sorts) can survive the upper Midwest I’d expect them to survive in someplace like the British Isles which, overall, has milder weather than we do.
Not all parrots evolved in tropical climates. Quaker parakeets come from the mountains of Argentina and Bolivia and can adapt well to cold temperatures. My sister used to live in Brooklyn and there were several colonies of these birds living near her house.
Ringnecks (psittacula species) come from places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal and can deal with cold temperatures pretty well.
I’ve seen feral parrot flocks here in SoCal in various cities, including Pasadena, Santa Monica, Long Beach and elsewhere.
As a flock, they make a very distinctive warbling squawking screeching sound when they fly about. I once heard it described as alien children laughing…
The new residents of these towns are amazed and intrigued by the parrots.
The not-so-new residents retell urban legends about them to visitors and newcomers. (Like, how our city is the only one with parrots, and/or how the parrots were the descendants of a few parrots that escaped/were freed during a pet store fire decades ago.)
The veteran residents just ignore them, or at least tolerate them. Because they can indeed be a nuisance.
The natives just roll their eyes. :rolleyes:
It is interesting how these birds can adapt to environments so different from the ones they evolved in. I believe the monk parakeets in the New York City area have succesfully maintained their population since at least the early 1970s. Unlike most other parakeets they build huge colonial stick nests.
I certainly hope, though, that none of the English parrots get a taste for British crops…they can be devastating agricultural pests.
Well, colour me surprised. 
I had no idea parrots and parakeets were three-season birds, able to survive cool weather and needing shelter only in the coldest winter.
Now I wonder whether there are any around Toronto, which has pretty much the same climate as Chicago [sub]only not as windy[/sub].
Up until ~1920 the US had a native parrot species, Carolina Parakeet.
But wasn’t that the year of the death ray?
Yes. In fact, the “1920s Death Ray” was invented by the parakeets. It’s all part of the Parrot Conspiracy. They talk about us, you know. And they’re plotting against us. All we hear is “Squawk! Squawk!” But what they’re really saying is, “First we’ll increase our numbers in their urban areas. Then we target their infrastructure… Hey guys! Check it out! ‘Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Pretty bird!’ Haw haw haw!” Oh, yes! Oh, yes! “Pretty bird”, my Aunt Sally! They’re out to get us!
We really dodged a bullet with the Death Ray. It’s only an accident in the late testing stages that saved us. The parakeets wiped themselves out instead.
The parrots haven’t given up, though. They’re out there. Plotting.
Beware the Parrot Conspiracy!
Which are easily identified by the large, white columns and multi-story architecture.
I saw a TV piece about the parakeets in South West London. There were tens of thousands of them roosting in poplar trees. Apparently, they’ve been around for years.
There’s a local pair of blue and gold macaws which fly around my village from time to time. Interestingly, this whole “parrots wild in England” thing only entered my consciousness this year - a few months back, a friend saw a blue and red macaw while walking to work in Manchester. It was odd, like something from a magical realism novel. Then I saw macaws near my house, which was exceedingly odd. Then I saw the TV piece about London’s parakeet population, and since then I’ve seen the macaws again.
Beautiful plumage though, innit?