A bird species native to tropical Africa and Asia has been spotted in a Drumcondra park.
Birdwatch Ireland is calling for the public to be aware of the ring-necked parakeets spotted in Griffith Park.
The birds are green with a long tail and red beak. It’s believed that the parakeets were originally kept as pets here and escaped, and now the population has increased in Dublin.
Ricky Whelan from Birdwatch Ireland told Dublin Live: “They’re not native to Ireland, they’ve been kept as pets here for years.
“They’re native to tropical Africa and Asia, they’re quite adaptable, for birds that are quite exotic, they can survive quite cold conditions. You can find them in Brussels, Amsterdam, London - the origin of them seems to be from escaped caged birds.
“There’s formal records of them in Ireland since the nineties but in the last couple of years, around Dublin, the sightings have increased. They try to breed in some of the parks around Drumcondra - they’re in Griffith Park at the moment.
“Certainly climate change would allow them to spread a bit further into colder countries as time goes but I don't think it’s encouraging things in Ireland just yet. They do tend to stay around cities and towns where it’s warmer in the winter.”
Due to Europe’s cooler climate, they are mostly confined to large urban areas, but conflict can arise with species native to the area when they have to compete for nest sites and resources.
Birdwatch Ireland is calling for all records of ring-necked parakeets to be submitted to the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC) via their online record submission page here.
For more information on the species you can visit the NBDC here .
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