Exotically beautiful and endearingly intelligent, the majestic Indian Ringneck makes a wonderful pet. Tim Falk reports.
The Indian Ringneck is becoming an increasingly popular pet bird among Australian bird enthusiasts and it’s not hard to see why. Extremely intelligent and known for its wide range of colour mutations, the Ringneck can make a wonderful companion for owners willing to devote enough love and attention to their pet.
Native to India, Indian Ringnecks have been kept as pets for thousands of years. Ringnecks have always been prized for their amazing ability to mimic human language — some birds can learn a vocabulary of up to 200 words — but it was the advent of a range of different colour mutations in the 1920s that saw the popularity of Indian Ringnecks skyrocket.
In Australia, Indian Ringnecks are loved for their inquisitive personalities and relatively small size. Their distinctive shrill calls combine with their beautiful colour combinations to help them stand out from the crowd, while they’re also well suited to the harsh Australian climate.
Although the Indian Ringneck is not native to Australia, it does have the potential to establish populations here and become a pest if enough pet Ringnecks escape into the wild. If you ever find an Indian Ringneck in the wild, report it to your state’s agriculture department or biosecurity service.
The original article was published in PETS issue 60. Click here to subscribe to our magazine.
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