The scientific name commemorates the Austrian naturalist Wilhelm Heinrich Kramer. The rose-ringed parakeet, also known as the ring-necked parakeet, is a gregarious tropical Afro-Asian parakeet species that has an extremely large range.
The rose-ringed parakeet is sexually dimorphic. The adult male sports a red or black neck-ring and the hen and immature birds of both sexes either show no neck rings, or display shadow-like pale to dark grey neck rings. Both sexes have a distinctive green colour. Rose-ringed parakeets measure on average 40 cm in length, including the tail feathers, a large portion of their total length. Their average single wing length is about 15–17.5 cm. In the wild, this is a noisy species with an unmistakable squawking call. It is herbivorous and non-migrating. In the wild, rose-ringed parakeets usually feed on buds, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and seeds.
Ring-necked parakeets are hole-nesters, often taking over an old woodpecker nest hole, or a larger-sized nestbox. The early start to the breeding season means that they have a wide choice of nesting sites with little competition for holes. Their main competitors are starlings, and also woodpeckers and owls. The female lays 3-4 eggs, and incubates them for three weeks. The young are cared for by both parents, and fledge when they are 40-50 days old. Their nesting success is very high. They normally mature to breed when they are three years old.
Both males and females have the ability to mimic human speech. First the bird listens to its surroundings, and then it copies the voice of the human speaker. Some people hand-raise rose-ringed parakeet chicks for this purpose. Such parrots then become quite tame and receptive to learning
