Dozens of green parrots have been spotted flying round Blackburn. 

The bright green birds, believed to be parakeets, are relatively common to the south-east of England, with many residing in the London area, however, Kenneth Whalen spotted a few flying between trees close to Audley Range.

Mr Whalen said he had pulled up close to the community centre on Chester Street on Thursday afternoon and saw several of the colourful birds making noises and circling in the sky.

He said: "There were about 10 or more of them flying around in the trees close to the leisure centre.

"I thought to myself, 'am I seeing things?'.

"There was a magpie chasing them.

"I couldn't believe how many of them there were.

"There's a park down in London where lots of these types of birds live but I've never seen them up here before.

"They looked happy enough, like pigeons I suppose, just going about their business, making their way from one tree to the next."

Last year, 32-year-old Peter Baldwin spotted a couple of the same type of parrot in his back garden in Cherry Tree, which had previously been frequented by woodpeckers, goldfinches, blue tits, robins and more.

Mr Baldwin was shocked when he looked out of his window on a Sunday morning in January and spotted two of the birds perching on his bird feeder.

At the time he said: "It was pretty amazing. I watched a video on parakeets on YouTube about a year ago.

"Two months after I watched that I saw one in my neighbour’s tree and it blew my mind.

“A year later now and I have seen two in my garden on the bird feeder.

“I have also spotted one on the canal walking through Feniscowles.

“They were there for about 15 minutes.”

The ring-necked parakeet is a native bird in tropical countryside and is common from west Africa across lowland India south of the Himalayas.

Despite their tropical origin, parakeets are able to cope with the cold British winters.

They feed on a wide variety of fruit, berries, nuts, seeds, grain and household scraps.

Parakeets have only resided in England since the late 1990s and, in the south-east are colourful and frequent visitors to bird tables and garden feeders during the winter months.