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Parakeets v. Gulls in Rome (1 Viewer)

BirdsinRome

New member
Hello! I have a rather specific question, but am hopeful that one of the experts here can either answer it definitively or point me in the right direction.

I live in the historic center of Rome, Italy. I work from home, and love nothing more than watching the birds out my window. The real treasure in Rome is its two species of green parrot: the rose-ringed parakeet and the monk parakeet. Seeing either of these two birds will make your day, and there are quite a few around the city.

My question is this: I'd like to put out food to attract these birds specifically. The long-shot here is the bane of Rome's existence (right after the Visigoths): the Yellow-Legged Gull. These monstrosities shred the garbage bags here to pieces and, since tourism has declined with the quarantine, have even taken to hunting pigeons and rats for food. Ergo, I can't even begin to imagine any source of edible anything that the seagulls wouldn't devour long before it was found by a parakeet.

I know it's a long-shot, but does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance!
 
Here in the UK, R.N.Parakeets come to feeders ( peanuts particularly ) and also ripe soft fruit in larger gardens - neither of which will be a Y.L.Gulls preference. Plenty of images to give you an idea of the type of feeder.
 
Unsure why we don't like a bird which hunts rats and pigeons...

Ring-necks are super common in London. Someone told me that they out-compete woodpeckers for holes. I certainly think the latter has declined somewhat in the area. Monk parakeets are now rare following a concerted eradication campaign. Not sure what the rationale for that is: their communal stick nests are huge and presumably cause some problems but otherwise I'm not sure they're worse than the ring-necks
 
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