Parakeet Urban Legends

[Jay Tea]

I was looking up this story on BBC concerning the possible impact of parakeet colonies in the UK.

So far i've heard that the colonies originated when birds escaped Pinewood Studios during the filming of The African Queen in the 50s, and others that they hail from a pair released by Jimi Hendrix in London in the 60s as a gesture of peace (man) - anybody know any more? Any other Cities of Snopesters have Parakeet colonies and similar ULs?

I would imagine that the most likely scenario would be that as the birds increased as popular pets, enough escaped to start breeding and secure colonies for expansion, though it would be cool if they 'were' all descended from Jimi's birds, though one thing parakeets ain't is peaceful