After cats and dogs, budgies are some of the most popular pets in the world, and certainly the most popular of all pet birds.
Compared to their cousins the African Grey and Hyacinth Macaw, they’re just as intelligent and entertaining, but their diminutive size means they’re a much more practical option for many people, requiring less space and maintenance.
The word budgie is short for budgerigar which is what the species is called in the wild. It is also known as the common parakeet, shell parakeet, warbling grass parakeet, canary parrot, zebra parrot, the scallop parrot, and the flight bird. They are also sometimes called lovebirds, although actual lovebirds are a different species altogether.
The etymology of the word budgerigar is not clear, and several proposals for the origins of the name have been put forward.
One of the most popular theories is that it is a mispronunciation of the Aboriginal word gidjirrigaa which translates as ‘good to eat. It is documented that Aborigines would hunt budgies for food and their plumage so this may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.
It may also be a compound of the words budgery (Australian English slang for ‘good’) and gar (cockatoo’), perhaps still referring to the fact that the bird was good for food, or perhaps because the bird is attractive to look at, or that the presence of budgies is a positive sign due the likelihood of water nearby. Alternative spellings include budgerygah and betcherrygah.
The species was first described in 1794 by Dr George Kearsley Shaw, an English botanist and zoologist, giving them the scientific name psitaccus undulatus or ‘undulated grass parakeet’.
In 1840, the English ornithologist, John Gould, who worked with Charles Darwin to describe the Galapagos finches, published a detailed study of the budgerigar in Birds of Australia, after bringing a few back home with him. He referred to them as “the most animated, cheerful little creatures you can possibly imagine”, as well as remarking on how good they were to eat.
Gould also gave them their current scientific name melopsitaccus undulatus from the Ancient Greek meaning “melodius parrot” and the Latin for “undulated” or “wave-patterned”.
The budgie is native to Australia and found in scrublands, grasslands, and open woodlands, although drought can force them to move to coastal areas. It has survived the dry conditions of its habitat due to its nomadic lifestyle and ability to breed on the move.
Wild budgies have light green plumage, with black markings with yellow edges on the back. The tail is cobalt blue with central yellow flashes, while the wings have dark green flight feathers and black coverts with yellow fringes which are visible in flight. On the head, the forehead and face are yellow with violet cheek patches and there are three black spots on each side of the throat. The eyes are dark, the bill is olive-grey, and the legs and feet are blue-grey with zygodactyl toes.
Males and females look the same except for the soft, fleshy bare patch at the base of the bill, called the cere, which is royal blue in males, and pale brown or white in females.
As mentioned, in the wild, budgerigars are opportunistic breeders, and will move to areas with high rainfall where grass seed is most plentiful. Because of this behaviour, populations of the species have increased around farms and agricultural land where water is abundant.
Budgies build their nests in the cavities of trees and lay between five and seven pearly-white eggs which are incubated by the female alone for about 18 days. The eggs hatch over a week-long period with the hatchlings born naked and blind.
Unlike many other species of birds, where the later-born chicks are often not fed enough and do not survive long enough to leave the nest, budgies feed the younger chicks first ensuring a good survival rate for all offspring. They leave the nest about six or seven weeks after hatching but rely somewhat on their parents for another nine months. They reach sexual maturity in a year, and their typical lifespan is between four and six years.
Budgerigars are one of over 90 species of birds known to engage in homosexual behaviour. It is not clear why they do, but one reason suggested is that although females are socially dominant in the species, they are much less sociable than males. This means that young males don’t get many opportunities to interact with females, so they have to practise attracting a mate with each other.
The ‘courtship practice hypothesis’ puts forward the idea that males with greater experience in courtship behaviours such as allopreening, head-bobbing, beak-rubbing, and even attempts at copulation, will have a better chance at attracting a female when she is ready to mate.
Budgies have been bred in captivity since the 1850s. Since then, breeders have worked to produce over 30 different colour combinations. Most budgies are white-based or yellow-based with additional hues called dark factors, for example, dark green, olive green, cobalt, or mauve, violet factors, and grey factors. They may also be cinnamon-coloured, albino, or pied, and have a variety of markings on their head and bodies.
Show budgies are known as English budgies and they are typically twice the size of wild budgies with thicker head feathers that puff up, sometimes almost obscuring the eyes and beak.
Most pet budgies, though, look similar to budgies found in the wild.
As social animals, budgies require a lot of stimulation in the form of toys and interaction with humans. They can be taught tricks such as how to skateboard, as well as to whistle and talk. Males are easier to train and can acquire a vocabulary of hundreds of words, whereas females will learn to mimic no more than a dozen. A male budgie called Puck holds the record for the largest vocabulary of any bird at 1,728 words.
There is an established feral population near St Petersburg in Florida which numbered around 20,000 in the 1970s. However, due to competition for nesting sites with the European starling and house sparrow, only a few hundred remain today.
Other introductions either from released or escaped captive parrots have not been successful. It is thought that artificial selection has removed most of the traits needed for a budgie to survive in the wild. Budgies also tend to thrive in large flocks so the release of just a handful would quickly make them confused and susceptible to predators, so it is unlikely they would ever come to colonise the UK, unlike their cousin the ring-necked parakeet.
