for nesting sites, and will attack and kill adults before colonising their habitat. In the United Kingdom and especially within London, parakeets face predation by native birds of prey and owls, including the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), Eurasian hobby (F. subbuteo) and tawny owl (Strix aluco). There is a breeding population on Madeira Island, Portugal. There is a feral population of the birds in Japan. In the 1960s many Japanese people became pet owners for the first time and the parakeet was widely imported as a pet. Some escaped or were released and formed populations around the country. By the 1980s groups could be found in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Niigata and Kyushu. Some groups since died out, but as of 2009 there was a large population residing at the Tokyo Institute of Technology's main campus at Ookayama, along with small groups in Maebashi and Chiba city. Feral rose-ringed parakeets have sporadically been observed around New Zealand, and are treated as a major potential threat to the country's native bird populations due to their potential to outcompete native parakeet species, and introduce diseases. Rose-ringed parakeet and bats In the María Luisa Park in Seville, the population of the common noctule declined sharply when the population of rose-ringed parakeets increased 20-fold. The rose-ringed parakeets attacked the common noctule at tree cavities and occupied most of the cavities previously used by the bats. The attacks by the rose-ringed parakeets often led to the death of the common noctule. In 14 years, the number of tree cavities occupied by the common noctule decreased by 81%. A spatial analysis of tree cavity use showed that the common noctule tried to avoid cavities near parakeets. In the Rhineland, conspicuous bite wounds have been found in bats caught near rose-ringed parakeet nesting cavities. However, more detailed studies in the Rhineland on this are missing so far. Gallery References External links Species text—The Atlas of Southern African Birds Photos—Oriental Bird Images Videos, photos and sounds—Internet Bird Collection rose-ringed parakeet Birds of South Asia Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa Feral parrots rose-ringed parakeet Parrots of Africa rose-ringed parakeet Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN