They are normally found in the tropical regions of Africa and admired for their colourful plumage.

But one parakeet has gained a less than favourable reputation since swooping in on a Scots neighbourhood.

Residents in Inverness say the tiny green bird has been leaving a trail of destruction for at least a year, ripping pieces of rubber from car window seals, chewing wiper blades and scratching the metalwork.

Chrisanne Robertson, 70, is now so desperate to stop the bird pecking at her vehicle she has ordered plastic snakes to sit on the dashboard to try and scare it away.

She said pest control experts have also advised residents to put cardboard faces in the windows to trick the bird into thinking the vehicle is occupied. Other residents are being forced to cover their vehicles in tarpaulin to keep the parakeet at bay.

Mrs Robertson said: ‘It’s got to the stage where we will try anything. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. He seems to do the damage early in the morning. It’s mainly to the rubber seals and the windows, but last night he had a peck at the frame. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny, but it’s no laughing matter.’

Resident Maisie MacPherson even said it had tried to attack her property.

She said: ‘I found it on my house trying to eat the rubber seals on the windows.’

Mrs Robertson said it had been suggested the bird, a ring-necked parakeet, distinguishable by the red marking around its neck, was an escaped pet, having first been spotted last September.

But the pensioner, who lives in the city’s Lochardil area, said: ‘If he’s a pet, what’s he surviving on – he can’t survive on rubber, though he is certainly fond of it.’

A parrot is being blamed for causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage to cars 

Local residents say they regularly see it pecking at window seals 

It has also been pecking at windscreen wipers, gouging out huge chunks of rubber

Angus Chisholm, whose vehicle was also targeted, estimated that the bird had caused at least £800 worth of damage to each car, having attacked ‘most of the cars in the street and beyond’.

But he stressed there was ‘no point repairing the car’ until the bird was caught.

The Scottish SPCA said it could be displaying natural behaviour as some parakeets strip back bark and leaves to form a nest during breeding season. Another possibility, it said, was that it could be stressed or frustrated.

Highland Council, however, said: ‘As parakeets are wild birds, it would not be a matter for our Environmental Health team.’

NatureScot said as the bird ‘is almost certain to be an escaped pet’ retrieving it was the owner’s responsibility.

A spokesman added that they can assist ‘by providing advice or lending them traps’.

But they stressed: ‘We would only act ourselves to prevent an invasive non-native species new to Scotland from becoming established.’

The agency said ring-necked parakeets were first confirmed as breeding in Glasgow in 2017 and have bred most years since.