Project title: Monitoring the Behaviour of the Parrot Species along the Rhine

Team: Green Parrot Team

Independent Bonn International School   Bonn   Germany   4 Student’s age: 10-11 years old

We assume that the good adaptation of the parrots to their new habitat can be caused by climate change and that global warming favours the spread of parrots. H1: We assume that the number of hot days affects the spread of the parrots. H2: We assume that the parrots do not displace other birds or species. H3: We assume that people already accepted the wild parrots in the city.

Our team of climate detectives in Bonn has set as its research topic the investigation of the parrot population that appeared and spread along the Rhine a few decades ago, a topic that is not only of local importance, but also affects the countries of the northern hemisphere, which cannot be called exotic. The ring-necked parakeet is native to Central-Africa and to parts of Asia such as India. They have been introduced by humans to North America and European countries such as Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The most northerly flock of parrots were found in Glasgow. Most urban legends say that the parrots who are not migrating birds probably escaped from a zoo or a bird-breeder and now they can successfully adapt to life in cooler climate of several European cities. It is also interesting that based on palaeontologists’ 55 million years old fossils from Scandinavia, the researchers suggest that parrots lived and evolved in the North much earlier than had been thought. These facts lead us to assume that the good adaptation of the parrots to their new habitat can be caused by climate change.
We studied how the climatic factors supported the parrots’ adaptation and their interaction with non-human and human environments. The latter was especially important for us because from time to time the local media reports on conflicts due to how noisy the parrots are, how they litter the city and cause damage to houses and other properties.
We used and analysed secondary data from the Climate Data Centre (CDC)-Portal to analyse the climatic changes between 1970-2022 in different regions of Germany.
We made birdwatching notes about the parrots’ behaviour.
We ourselves developed a survey to measure the positive or negative attitudes of our schoolmates related to the wild green parrots.

Comparing North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony we found a significant difference in precipitation and the average temperature. Interestingly, the higher average temperature of North Rhine-Westphalia comes from the smaller number of frost days rather than the higher number of hot days. It suggests that the parrots might prefer the mild winter season to hot summers.
Our ground measurements showed that as temperature has positive weak (Pearson r = 0.25) and observation date has positive moderate correlation (Pearson r = 0.49) the air pressure has negative weak correlation (Pearson r = -0.3) with the observed parrot number.
At our birds’ behaviour observation, we investigated the parrots’ social activity in a very interesting period: the middle of February the breeding which takes until end of March. We categorized 6 types of activities: 1) parrots flock look for safe place or food, 2) parrot couple, 3) parrots and their nest, 4) parrot fight with enemy, 5) parrot as guard or food searching, 6) no parrots or other bird. In February we found that the parrots’ activity can be observed mostly around their partner and the nest. One of their predators, the gray squirrel could be observed in the egg laying period. In second part of March the ring-necked parakeet showed more activity in their broader community when they were observed in flocks.
In our self-developed survey, we found that the overall impression of the responders related to the wild green parrots is neutral (MEAN =2.95). Most responders agreed that the wild green parrots can be considered as native to Bonn as other birds, and they don’t think that the parrots are more special (exotic, beautiful or cute) than other birds in Bonn.

Our measurements and analyses proved that changes in climatic factors favours the spread of parrots in the future. It means that we have to get used to being able to live with the wild parrots in the cities.
Since from time to time the local media reports on conflicts due to how noisy the parrots are, how they litter the city and cause damage to houses and other properties. The suggested solutions are mainly to chase the parrots away from the city for example with the use of falcons as natural predator or with rocket explosions. We think these are not good solutions: Any kind of actions should be focusing on prevention, and to find the best way for it we must first understand the parrots’ behaviour. Our recommendations are to solve the following problems:
If we want to reduce or avoid the damages in buildings that the parrots can cause, the best solution for it is to use artificial nests.
Birds’ droppings are a more problematic issue in cities not just related to parrots but doves as well. Several articles pointed out that the birds’ guano can contain the kind of microorganisms and bacteria which can cause diseases and can be transmitted to humans. In this case the best solution would be if we set the park benches and relaxing places far from the birds’ habitat.
As a team of young climate detectives, we are convinced that these non-violent actions with prevention focus can be useful for the peaceful and happy co-living with green parrots and other animals as well.

Download project poster PDF

Projects are created by the teams and they take the full responsibility of the shared data.
← All projects