The calls of ring-necked parakeets are one of the reasons some people label the birds as 'pests': their squawks are repetitive, squeaky and shrill (listen on xeno-canto). Florin explains that the ...

If you’re looking for a gentle and quiet pet bird, look no further than bourke’s parakeet. They are most active around dusk and dawn but even then, they only produce soft, melodic calls.

Though they are not native to the UK, ring-necked parakeets are now so numerous here that they qualify as a common British bird. So how did this happen? Tales of how parakeets arrived in the UK ...