Parrots: House hunting?

Paying a friendly breakfast visit?

This morning I happened to take a train from Grant Road Station, Mumbai and walk down to the Post Office for some work. On my way back, I came across these two parrots looking into a hollow on this (Gulmohar?) tree. All I had with me was my phone cam, so the pictures are really not that good. As soon as I took pictures and walked on, one of the parrots shrieked loudly, flew off and to my amazement a third one popped its head out of the hollow! I'd like to think this was a breakfast meet up.

...or scoping for a new home?

In reality, these two must have been scouting for a new home and got startled by the resident. Anyway, when I checked these pictures out, I realised that these are not rose-ringed parakeets. I assumed they were because you usually see the Alexandrine parrots in the suburbs. It was my oversight that I didn't bother to notice what type they were before impatiently (and hurriedly) taking a picture.


So, it turns out, if one looks very carefully at the poor quality captures, one will notice reddish patches (smudges, in this case) on their shoulders. That means they are Alexandrine parakeets – an 'introduced' species of parrots in Mumbai. Yep, I had read somewhere that unlike the rose-ringed ones, these guys are not native.