IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

Calls are loud and harsh or piercing, with variation in the structure. Generally they are slightly less dry and harsh than those of Rose-ringed Parakeet.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

There are two distinct population centres in HK, both apparently originating in the 1990s: around Victoria Harbour, centred on Kowloon Park; and in the north and northwest New Territories, centred on Long Valley. The Kowloon Park population is the more concentrated of the two, with most records from the park itself and typically only a handful of birds reported elsewhere in Kowloon. Small numbers, usually just one or two individuals, reported around Central, HK Island, especially in HK Park, may derive from this population or may be ex-captive individuls from a different source. Unsurprisingly, this urban population is usually seen in city parks, where it makes use of large trees and man-made structures.

The New Territories population appears to be more wide-ranging, though this is uncertain, with favoured areas apparently being Long Valley itself and the area between Ho Sheung Heung and Yuen Long and as far west as Pak Nai, whilst in the east the Ping Yueng/Ping Che area appears to have been used since about 2017. There are also a handful of reports from the Central New Territories, Peng Chau and Lantau – these largely refer to single birds on single dates. The New Territories population also uses city parks, but birds are more often seen in or over farmland, village areas, open storage sites and other waste land and suburban estates. In these areas orchard fruit trees and large ornamental planted trees such as Bombax ceiba may be important.

Alexandrine Parakeet was reported from  0.1% of squares in the 1993-96 breeding season survey and 0.3% of squares in the 2001-05 winter survey and, reflecting its slow increase, 0.5% of squares in both the 2016-19 breeding season and winter surveys.

OCCURRENCE 

Single Alexandrine Parakeets, assumed to be ex-captive individuals, were occasionally reported from HK Island, Kowloon and at Mai Po during 1979 to 1989. Carey et al. (2001) also referred to a confirmed breeding record at Kowloon Park in 1993 and stated that it was seen there until 1998; the peak count there during this period appears to be eight birds in 1998. However, details of the breeding record do not seem to have been published. During this period, there were few records from elsewhere, with the largest count (also of eight) from Long Valley in 1998.

The Kowloon Park population appears to have been present continuously since then, and in 2013 Alexandrine Parakeet was transferred to Category IIB of the HK List on the strength of regular reports from weekly guided tours of the Park of what was considered to be a self-sustaining population (Carey 2015). Unfortunately, further details regarding this decision do not appear to have been published, though the HKBR Systematic List for that year notes that Alexandrine Parakeet was recorded in all months by the weekly counts, with a peak of 14 on 25 December (Welch 2015). Subsequently, the peak count from that site in the HKBR is of 18 on 26 January 2018; more recently a count from there of 16 on 3 February 2023 (eBird 2023) suggests that numbers at this site have been stable in the past decade.

The New Territories population is rather more enigmatic: since 2012 when a flock of 13 was reported from MPNR, there have been frequent reports of small flocks every year, with the highest counts being of 23 birds at Ping Che on 2 December 2019 and 20 in Long Valley on 1 May 2023. Birds from this population appear to be wide-ranging (they are often seen in flocks flying over) and, unlike the Kowloon Park population, does not appear to be centred on any particular location or locations.

Thus, whilst we can be quite confident that the urban population centred around Kowloon Park currently totals around 25 individuals; the north New Territories population could consist of as few as 30 individuals (if most records relate a one wide-ranging group) or at least twice that (if there are two or more sub-populations).

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET 

Alexandrine Parakeet is highly arboreal and, if not seen in flight, is usually observed in large trees or, in the case of the Kowloon Park population, on man-made structures, where it sometimes perches conspicuously. Roosts are assumed to be communal, as they are in their native range (Juniper & Parr 1998), but there appear to be no observations of roosting behaviour in HK.

Casual observations of diet include flocks observed feeding on the flowers and/or nectar of a large Bombax ceiba tree, feeding on the fruit of Celtis sinensis and shredding the seed pods and eating the seeds of a Senna surattensis (better known by its synonym Cassia surattensis).

BREEDING 

Despite its (presumed) regular breeding in Kowloon Park and what appears to be a slowly increasing population in the north New Territories, nothing has been published in respect of breeding ecology in HK; indeed, there are no published confirmed breeding records, or even records referring to birds utilising possible nesting sites.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS 

The native range of Alexandrine Parakeet comprises the Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, central Thailand and southern Indochina. It just reaches China, extending into Yunnan west of Dali (Liu and Chen 2021, eBird 2023), whilst introduced populations are widespread in Europe and the Middle East and a small, introduced population is present in Guangzhou (eBird 2023).

There are five races: P. e. avensis occurs in Myanmar and is presumed to be the race occurring in Yunnan. It is not known which subspecies occur in HK; racial differences are minor (Juniper & Parr 1998) and unlikely to be discernible in the field.

CONSERVATION STATUS 

IUCN: Near Threatened. Population trend decreasing. The small HK population is not considered to be of conservation significance (BirdLife International 2017).