Why are there so many parakeets in Surrey? Where did they come from?

“Surrey is a prime parakeet county,” says Oliver Fry from the Surrey Wildlife Trust.

Standing in Meadowbank Park in Dorking, he tells Secret Surrey the bright green birds like tall trees, munching on blossom and drinking out of ponds.

They are often heard before they are seen as they have “very loud, shrill voices” and “argue quite a lot”, Mr Fry explains.

But why are there so many parakeets in Surrey, and where did they come from?

Mr Fry says many popular myths surround how parakeets – an invasive species – arrived in the UK.

His favourite is that US guitarist Jimi Hendrix released them on Carnaby Street in London near the end of the 1960s.

“It is lovely to think of him giving these exotic creatures their first taste of Britain.”

Going back further, the wildlife expert says another urban legend is that parakeets were brought onto the set of the 1951 film The African Queen and escaped.

But the truth behind their arrival in the UK, according to him, is that they were imported from India and Pakistan as pets.

“Many people who bought them relatively cheaply in those days got fed up with them and let them go,” he tells BBC Radio Surrey.

“The hardiest ones managed to eke out a living. Now they are thriving here.”

Mr Fry says parakeet imports were at their height in the 1970s and 80s, when large numbers of wild birds started to be shipped commercially by air.

But the non-migratory species was brought in by boat before that and there are records of parakeets living in the wild during Victorian times.

DNA research by the University of Kent has traced the majority of British parakeets back to populations from Pakistan and northern parts of India.

Mr Fry says the parakeet trade boomed because they were easy to catch, transport and sell.

But the bird was a “rip off”, he continues. “They generally don’t like to be kept in cages, they don’t tame down very easily and are noisy.”

Though he himself likes them, Mr Fry says the species is controversial for both the public and conservationists.

“Not everyone loves them. They are very brash, colourful, domineering creatures.

“That obviously is going to divide opinion.”