Vandal parakeet attacks cars, escapes with impunity and even became a forbidden word in a neighborhood in Scotland

The residents of Lochardil, a suburb of Inverness, in the north of Scotland, have been living since February with a loss as unusual as it is costly: a parakeet loose in the region has become the terror of car owners, attacking vehicles parked on the streets.

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The financial impact caused by the winged troublemaker

The bird has acquired the habit of perching on cars to tear off large pieces of the rubber that seals the windows and the windshield wiper blades with its beak. The case gained repercussions after residents reported the problem to BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors program: the bird disappears for weeks, but always comes back to resume vandalism.

The hole in the neighborhood is already high. One resident estimates that the damage accumulated on the street is in the thousands of pounds, and there is a report of an owner who paid 800 pounds (about R$ 5,500) to repair the damage – only to have the car attacked again the following week. As a defense, many started to cover their vehicles with protective tarpaulins every day.

Why is the parakeet in Scotland attacking vehicles?

The community asked for help from animal protection agencies, such as RSPB Scotland and Scottish SPCA, but no entity could collect the animal. Highland Council said its environmental health team did not intervene because it was a wild bird. As the collared parakeet is rare in the north of Scotland – the species is concentrated in London and southeast England – everything indicates that the animal is a pet that has run away or has been abandoned.

Experts from NatureScot point to three hypotheses for the destructive behavior:

• Defense of territory: the bird attacks cars when it sees its own reflection in the windows;
• Nutrition: looks for specific fats or minerals, confusing the material with food;
• Boredom: pure behavior of exploration and play.

In view of this, the guidance to residents is to cover the windshields, hide the base of the glass to block the reflection or bend the wiper arms backwards.