Parks and gardens of Athens, and other cities, became colonised by bright-green, red-beaked parrots.
It remains a mystery as to how birds native to Africa and the Indian subcontinent first got to Greece.
Ornithologists say parrots are not “typical migrants” and as such incapable of having flown
huge distances via traditional migratory routes.
Instead, most believe the birds are escapees much in the same way
that escaped parakeets were first spotted in Britain in the 19th century.
Far from being an urban myth we think they probably first arrived in cages at the old Athens airport and then escaped from captivity.
