Sightings of ring-necked green parakeets in West Berkshire gardens

More sightings of an exotic bird have been reported.

West Berkshire residents have continued to spot ring-necked green parakeets feeding in their gardens.

The birds were first seen in gardens around Calcot at the beginning of the year.

Peter Chaffey spotted one of the birds perched on his peanut feeder in Hamstead Marshall on December 8.

It stayed between two to three hours, he said, and has not been seen since.

But he is not the only one.

Winterbourne resident, Mary Baylis, also said she has seen a parakeet feeding in her garden.

Simon Cowley added: “We’ve had them in our’s too over the New Year in Southcote.

“They’re really colourful and spent ages feeding on the nut feeders.”

The birds, a species native to Asia and Africa, have a distinctive bright green colour and noisy scream.

Once domestic pets, the birds escaped into the wild and have become a common sight in London and the South East since the late 1990s.