Ring-Necked Parakeets: House Hunting in London

These were a very welcome splash of colour on a very grey day; I was actually thinking of photographing blossom (for some colour) but these'll do nicely...

I could hear these birds long before I could see them: they're so loud and sound so unlike any of our native birds (they sound so stereotypically tropical). I saw a flash of green land low in a tree not far from where I was standing, so whipped out my camera and trotted over in time to see a head suddenly appear from this little hole! Out came a whole parakeet; how did it fit in the hole without messing up its feathers?!

There was a lot of competition going on for this hole: at one point there were 6 parakeets hopping and flapping and screeching in the tree. These two prevailed. and remained on the tree long after all the others had left. They were fun to photograph but exposure was tricky with the bright white sky in the background. I like this shot because it shows the way that they spread their tails to perch against the bark, but I also got shots of the couple preening each other. I've uploaded a shot of them "kissing" to Blipfolio.