Amsterdam Amsterdam AMS Parks and Monuments wildlife

Amsterdam’s green parakeets

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  • February 28, 2018
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a bird on a tree branch

In Amsterdam thousands of green ring-necked parakeets live in the trees of city parks and other urban environment areas of the city. There are estimated to be more than 10,000 parakeets across Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.

Green parakeets are birds I spotted on previous trips to Amsterdam, but forgot about these feral foreigners flying about the city until spotting several green parakeets sitting in a tree in Oosterpark last week.

parakeets (2)

Later the same day I spotted more green birds in the trees of Vondelpark in a different part of the city.

parakeets Vondelpark

Ring-necked parakeets, native to North Africa and India, initially appeared in Amsterdam during the 1970s. Their ability as a species to thrive in the generally mild European coastal climate has grown to thousands of wild parakeets in Amsterdam and other major cities of the Netherlands today.

As an invasive species not welcome by all, yet a bit of green color in trees with a sing song presence during Amsterdam winter is a welcome encounter for others like me.

 

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  • SCALRA February 28, 2018

    We have a similar situation here in Austin with monk parakeets. There are colonies spread across the city and are reported to be descendants of escaped pets. They build massive nests on cell towers, light towers and utility poles. They are certainly a nuisance for anyone who owns and maintains those structures, but they are also a nice tropical touch for the urban environment.

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