Green Parrots in Amsterdam

The Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)

Yesterday I was washing the dishes and I noticed a green parrot eating from our neighbors bird feeder. My first thought was that their bird must have gone loose...but before I had time to think further I saw that there were 5 of them in the tree in front of our house. I had heard about parrot populations living in the parks of Amsterdam but I would have never expected to see one in front of me over here. I mean it was quite strange to see a tropical bird in the suburbs of Amsterdam! So naturally the first thing I did was to run upstairs to get my camera...which of course didn't have a memory card and the first one I found was full. So I did the quickest delete process I've ever done in my life and run upstairs to get a better view of the birds. Luckily, they were still happily eating at their little tree and I had few seconds to take few photos. 

I got so excited about my random finding so I did a little research on this particular bird and found the following facts. The Rose-ringed Parakeet is a feral tropical bird found in places such as India, South Africa and Japan. As I got to know, it has also spread to a number of European cities including Holland's largest urban areas. Apparently there are only around 10,000 birds in  the Netherlands...which is the reason why you hardly ever see them. A funny thing about these birds living over here is that they originate from an original population that was set free in 1987 from a local zoo.  I also found out that both males and females have the ability to mimic human speech...and therefore they are also quite popular as pets. What I also found extremely cute, according to Wikipedia they can also show emotions similar to human beings and adjust easily to family life. :D How cute is that! If you want to read more facts, please click on the picture below. :)