Results Ring-necked Parakeet census 2006
R. M. V. Jonker MSc. & W.P.J. Teunissen MSc.
As a follow up to “The year of the Ring-necked Parakeet” of SOVON in 2004, Araproject and Waarneming.nl organized the 2nd national Parakeet census on 16-17 December 2006. Dozens of volunteers in Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Diemen, Wageningen, Rhenen, Maastricht, Deventer, Apeldoorn, Ouddorp, Hellevoetsluis, Vlieland, Groningen, Rockanje and Rijswijk helped out.
Run around
Counting the Ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) was harder than expected. The traditional roosts, where they communally spent the night in the past, were suddenly abandoned. The roost in Voorburg was a big favorite for the population of The Hague for many years, but was empty this year. Right up to the census date there were many smaller, temporary roosts. At The Uithof in The Hague for example, but this one was abandoned as well. From the volunteers of waarneming.nl we got information that helped us locate a new roosts. One in the middle of The Hague and another at Rijswijk.
In Amsterdam the parakeets were also drifting. December 2005 they were sleeping in the Florapark next to IJ lake. Now they moved back to the Oosterpark where they also roosted in the years before 2005.
Predation
What the reasons are for the movements between roosts we might never know. Willem van Esch Willem van Esch has done research on alleged nest takeovers by Ring-necked parakeets and describes how Ring-necked parakeets were prayed upon by Owls. The disturbance of these nightly visitors might be a very good reason for parakeets to move house. Research done in the native countries of the parakeets shows that they change their roost locations on a regular basis.
Comparing 2004/2006
This year a total of 4678 Ring-necked parakeets were counted at the known roosts. Overall one could say that there is a decline as 2004 the population was estimated at 5400 birds. This decline is mainly caused by the disappearing of 1500 parakeets in The Hague compared to 2004. There is a however a substantial increase in numbers in Haarlem and Rotterdam. The population in Amsterdam has only grown a little.
In the weeks preceding this simultaneous count we did some censes at several roosts. The numbers of animals in the roost were growing up till the weekend of the census. For example: in Amsterdam there were 1225 last one wek befor the census, this weekend there were 1950 birds. This is an increase of 725 birds. This means that lot’s of birds were sleeping somewhere else until recently. In the The Hague roost we found a similar pattern. This could mean that the numbers will still be growing over the next weeks accounting for the lost birds. Discovery of a small roost in Rijsijk confirmed that they are sleeping in a wide variety of places in smaller groups. In addition we think that a part of the Rotterdam/Delft population are migrants from the The Hague population, explaining for the excessive growth of the population there.
Expansion continues, growth slows down
With these results it is our general impression that the explosive growth that was apparent in the late 90’s and the beginning of this century is not continuing at that that same pace. The spreading from the core populations (The Hague and Amsterdam) to other city area’s has however continued. In 2004 there was not a single parakeet found in Utrecht. This year there are parakeets seen there regularly.
New escapees
Furthermore there are several sightings of single parakeets. The Ring-necked Parakeet is very popular and cheep to obtain. People often miscalculate the noise this bird is able to produce and the care it needs in a pet situation. This often ends with the owner literary sending there birds out of their windows. These “escapees�? rarely have a long life, only a few will make it. An example of this is a lonely parakeet flying around in the harbor of Vlieland.
Maximum speed
During our preparations for this census we followed some parakeets on their way to the roost. The birds seem to follow the roads as their guide. During a ride along the provincial Highway between Voorschoten and The Hague we were able to follow a group of Ring-necked parakeets for a while. They were flying with a constant speed of 60km/hour. De distance between Voorschoten and The Hague for them is just a short 15 minutes flight.
Other species
During this census we did not focus on Ring-necked parakeets alone. Several other feral parrot species were taken up. Thanks to widespread media attention and several internet forums we got surprising reports of small populations of Quaker parrots (Myiopsitta monachus) (see figure 2).
There were several Alexandrine parakeets (Psittacula eupatria) seen roosting with the Ring-Necked parakeets in Haarlem and Amsterdam. These birds are closely related to each other. A total of 22 Alexandrine parakeets were counted this weekend.
Very surprising were reports of 3 Senegal Parrots (Poicephalus senegalus). Two in The Hague and one in Groningen. The two Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao) that are monitored by Araproject in Haarlem are still alive and kicking.
This census was a success. Thanks to our volunteers we got a better insight into the feral and naturalized parrot populations of The Netherlands.