Budgerigar parakeets or ‘budgies’ as they’re often called are the most common pet bird in Europe and North America. In fact, they may well be the most popular pet after dogs and cats. Oddly, they achieved this status relatively quickly. While humans have kept pet birds for thousands of years, budgerigars are newcomers. Natives to Australia’s desert interior, budgies weren’t captively bred until the mid-19th century. There is also an established population near St. Petersburg, FL.
What Makes Them Popular
Budgerigars are beautiful birds that typically come in shades of blue/gray or green/yellow. However, selective breeding has led to more than 30 different colors. That same breeding also created the ‘show’ or ‘exhibition’ budgerigar, which is much larger than wild birds. As seen in the picture to the left, the exhibition bired (leftmost) is much larger than the pet birds. That smaller size, much smaller than other pet birds, also contributes to the popularity of the budgie. Perhaps the most imporant factor is that budgerigars can mimic human speech and music. While male birds can learn more than a hundred words, females typically learn fewer than a dozen. There’s no scientific evidence to back me up, but I suspect it’s because the males never let the females get a word in. A male budgerigar named Puck holds the record for the largest avian vocabulary at 1728 words. At this time claims that budgies can engage in actual conversation remain unverified.
Our featured map illustrates the natural distribution of the budgerigar in Australia. It comes courtesy of Wikipedia and was created by Offnfopt, Haarmonster, and Martyman. The lined area represents their common range. The dashed lines indicate occasional occurrences.
I’ve never owned a budgie, but my uncle did. I don’t remember any of their vocabulary, but they did whistle. My mother wouldn’t let me get one.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
Note to Pay the Bills: The second and third books in the Misaligned series feature a paranormal investigator, Darin Kolchak and Pandora his adopted pet budgerigar. Kolchak’s habit of watching classic cartoons and sci-fi TV shows gives Pandora a unique repertoire of sounds that provides comedic breaks in the action. How does that fit in with a YA fantasy story about the intersection of theoretical physics and Welsh mythology? You can learn more here or find links to purchase books here.
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