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Exotic Birds In Great Britain

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Dick Turpin

Justified & Ancient
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Mar 28, 2018
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A few nights ago I was sitting up watching late night TV, and heard what I can only describe as an exotic bird, it was loud and sounded to be just beyond the back door in my back garden - It was the sort of sound that you may hear, if you visited the bird house in your local zoo.

Not wanting to open the door, I grabbed a torch and shone it through the glass, and saw the outline of something quite large sitting on the branches of an olive tree, just a few yards away.

I couldn’t see any detail as the torchlight wasn’t bright enough, but there was definitely something perching there.

I then heard my cat meow, so shone the torch downwards and saw him clawing at the glass to come in, I opened the door just enough for the cat to squeeze through, closed it then shone the torch back to the direction of the tree, but whatever was there had gone.

I reasoned that the large bird had chased my predatory cat away, while protecting it’s nest.

I didn’t imagine it, as my eldest Daughter asked me about the bird like noise the next morning, and as stated above I have only heard anything like this in a Zoo or whilst watching wildlife programmes being filmed in warmer parts of the world.

Do we have exotic birds living wild in the British Isles, and if not what could it have been…?
 
Green Parakeets are an invasive species and fairly common in the south of england now. in london they're everywhere. and quite noisy. though i doubt one would scare the cat much. maybe it was a native bird of prey? like the above mentioned owl? i heard a red kite crying this morning and it was weird because they don't usually make a noise around here. peacocks as pets do escape and go feral sometimes. you'll soon know if theres a peacock in your neighbourhood.....
 
Thanks for the replies. I’m on the train going home at the mo, but I’ll review the noises of the different species when I get home and see which one comes close.
TTFN
 
Saw two birds driving home yesterday that I don't think I've ever seen before. One was flying overhead on the Wirral while I was waiting for a green light, medium sized, long unforked tail - I mean unusually long, very flappy flight, probably black (it was against the light, but it was a very dark brown or blue if not black). Second one was foraging - long legs compared to body, very separate toes, long narrow beak, again medium sized but more a stork like shape, very definitely all black. That was out on the North Wales coast.

Anyone any suggestions? Been looking in the one reference book I have on birds but no obvious matches. Also saw an unusually high number of dead birds, mainly seagulls but some other varieties, including one poor chap by my parked car which must have been gotten by a cat or something as there was only about a third of it left.
 
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The long-tailed one might be a sparrowhawk; there's one near us that kills woodpigeons, but isn't quite strong enough to fly away with them - so it drops them in people's gardens.
sparrowhawk.jpg

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The long-legged one might be a godwit, which is brownish
godwits.jpg

or maybe a coot, which is black, but the beak isn't very long.
coot.png

Or maybe a night heron?

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The Sparrowhawk is a reasonable match. Thanks. Maybe the one I saw was a bit ill and flying slowly :)

I'm sure the other bird was some sort of wader but I can't find one that matches.
 
The dead birds are probably a result of the Avian Flu outbreak in the UK. There have been warnings in the Irish papers about keeping an eye out for dead birds here and to report it in an effort to try and reduce the spread.
 
Seen a few reports in the last week of 2 large birds
one was seen carrying a full grown grouse only
described as big keeping my eyes open but nothing
seen yet this was near the river Wyre not far from
Hambleton. on the Fylde coast.
 
I saw two very small birds on my delivery on Saturday morning. I’ve never seen this type of bird before. They were sitting side by side on a low branch twittering. They had orangey/red heads and sandy coloured bodies. I got a good look at them before they spotted me and flew off. I would estimate they were about three inches tall.
I asked my brother in law what they could be as his knowledge of birds is immense. He suggested a Lesser Redpoll but no definitely not,their whole heads were coloured and not just the top of the head. Hopefully I’ll see them again and can get a picture.
 
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Erinaceus said:
Goldfinches?
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There was no white on the head. The whole head was an orangey red colour. I didn’t see any other colours apart from the sandy coloured body and the head. I’m not saying they were exotic birds just a type I haven’t seen before.
 
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I can't think of anything else in the UK. Perhaps they had escaped from an aviary.
 
Stillill said:
There was no white on the head. The whole head was an orangey red colour. I didn’t see any other colours apart from the sandy coloured body and the head. I’m not saying they were exotic birds just a type I haven’t seen before.
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Look up Blackcap - female as that is what it sounds like to me.
 
maximus otter said:
A small aside: l was quite excited to see my first ring-necked parakeets in Greenwich the other day. They were in a tree opposite the entrance to the National Maritime Museum.

maximus otter
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I was watching Leyton Orient play at home back in January Max, and there was a large flock of them. Some of them were swooping down on the players and fans.

I did catch it on my phone, but I don’t know how to upload the footage to this forum. I’d say there were at least 3 dozen of them. Where they came from I’ll never know, although someone said that they had escaped from a local film set. It’s possible that the birds you saw in Greenwich were part of the same flock.
 
Dick Turpin said:
I was watching Leyton Orient play at home back in January Max, and there was a large flock of them. Some of them were swooping down on the players and fans.

I did catch it on my phone, but I don’t know how to upload the footage to this forum. I’d say there were at least 3 dozen of them. Where they came from I’ll never know, although someone said that they had escaped from a local film set. It’s possible that the birds you saw in Greenwich were part of the same flock.
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Did you ever identify the bird in the opening post? We have waited patiently since 2019 to find out.:D
 
maximus otter said:
A small aside: l was quite excited to see my first ring-necked parakeets in Greenwich the other day. They were in a tree opposite the entrance to the National Maritime Museum.

maximus otter
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Saw a flock of them a few years ago at Chessingtons (Theme Park) giving obvious alarm calls, looked about ,sure enough Sparrowhawk nearby. Not one other person noticed !. People are totally unaware of what's happening around them.

And not exotic but saw my first Goshawk last week, f*****g fantastic, like a Sparrowhawk that had OD'ed on steroids.
 
Dick Turpin said:
I was watching Leyton Orient play at home back in January Max, and there was a large flock of them. Some of them were swooping down on the players and fans.

I did catch it on my phone, but I don’t know how to upload the footage to this forum. I’d say there were at least 3 dozen of them. Where they came from I’ll never know, although someone said that they had escaped from a local film set. It’s possible that the birds you saw in Greenwich were part of the same flock.
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There are a lot of feral Indian ringnecks around London and the home counties, and they've even been reported as far north as Edinburgh!

It is, sadly, an urban legend that they escaped from the set of The African Queen, nor were they released by Jimi Hendrix; they've been seen around since the late 1890s, IIRC.

They're a very common pet bird, and have been for centuries, as they're excellent talkers and mimics, but much smaller and easier to keep than the larger parrots, so it's not that surprising that enough have escaped over the years to found breeding colonies, and they're very hardy; their natural range includes the Himalayan foothills.
 
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Fluttermoth said:
There are a lot of feral Indian ringnecks around London and the home counties, and they've even been reported as far north as Edinburgh!

It is, sadly, an urban legend that they escaped from the set of The African Queen, nor were they released by Jimi Hendrix; they've been seen around since the late 1890s, IIRC.

They're a very common pet bird, and have been for centuries, as they're excellent talkers and mimics, but much smaller and easier to keep than the larger parrots, so it's not that surprising that enough have escaped over the years to found breeding colonies, and they're very hardy; their natural range includes the Himalayan foothills.
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If I remember correctly, didn't they kick-off after escaping from an collector of exotic birds back in the day? (Victorian period?)
 
Sid said:
If I remember correctly, didn't they kick-off after escaping from an collector of exotic birds back in the day? (Victorian period?)
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No-one knows exactly where they came from, but it's almost certain that there will have been multiple instances of birds being lost or deliberately released, over many years.

(I did some research on Indian ringnecks when I started looking at getting a parrot, they have a fascinating history actually; I almost wish I'd got one! The blue and grey ones are more unusual and expensive than the green ones :) )
 
Fluttermoth said:
There are a lot of feral Indian ringnecks around London and the home counties, and they've even been reported as far north as Edinburgh!..
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Is it just me, or has the London population surged in the last - maybe - ten years?

I recall, back in the 1990's that you'd see the odd parakeet in central London, but that they were still a bit unusual. I seem to remember that there were a few well, and long, established localised concentrations (I'm pretty sure Brompton Cemetery was one - and there were a couple of others I cannot now recall) but that they were nowhere near as ubiquitous outside these areas as they are now.

I was sitting in Gordon Square, near Euston Station, having a coffee a month or so ago and realised that, although the parakeets are a commonplace there these days, I'm pretty sure they weren't when I would sit and do the same not so many years ago.
 
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