EXOTIC birds have been spotted across the borough on the first day of the year, bringing a splash of colour to the winter landscape.

A pair of parakeets were photographed in a garden in Coppermill Lane Walthamstow on New Year’s Day.

Chris Squire was surprised to spot the pair on returning from a shopping trip.

He and his girlfriend, Jookyoung Kim, 29, have seen up to six of the same species return every day since.

The 24-year-old said: “They’re very unusual for Walthamstow, it’s so refreshing to see them here.

“I opened the window after unpacking my shopping and that’s when I saw them, it was a bit of a shock.

“It’s brilliant to have them in our back garden, they look very exotic so it’s strange to have them here in the Walthamstow winter.”

Stephen Stocker, of Larkswood Road in Chingford, spotted the birds in Chingford Mount Cemetery in Old Church Road during a stroll on New Year’s Day.

He said: “I was taking a walk and in the cemetery I heard a high-pitched noise. I stopped, looked up and saw the parakeets. it was a real surprise.”

Tim Webb, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said records of their existence in Britain date from the 1850s though it was not until the 1980s that the population grew to the estimated 30,000 it is today.

There are a number of myths about how the birds, which originate from Asia, came to Britain.

They include the claim that they arrived when the 1951 film The African Queen was filmed in west London and parakeets were used on set, which managed to escape.

Other stories include the population breeding from a pair released by Jimi Hendrix at a Carnaby Street concert in the 1960s, or flying free from a damaged shipping crate at Heathrow.

The parakeet also often divides opinion.

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