|Size||6-8 in (15-20 cm)|
|Weight||1-1.4 oz (30-40 g)|
|Predators||Snakes, big birds|
|Habitat||Australia (worldwirde as a pet)|
|Scientific name||Melopsittacus undulatus|
|Characteristics||Colorful plumage, typical warbling|
Budgies are among the most popular birds in the world and probably also the bird species most widely kept as a pet bird. In the wild, budgies live together in large swarms in bushy areas and savannahs. They prefer eucalyptus trees. The plumage of budgies shows transverse black markings, which are rather delicate on the head and back and are becoming increasingly wider towards the wings.
Where Does the Name Come From?
The name budgeriar most likely derives from the language from the native australians. Budgeri means “good” and “gar” means cockatoo. You want to keep budgies? Our pet section has a detailed pet profile for the budgie and many other birds.
Linguistic Geniuses: 1. Largest Vocabulary
A budgie named Puck holds the record for being the bird with the largest vocabulary in the world. Puck was able to use 1,728 words. Unfortunately, the bird, which was owned by Camille Jordan, died in 1994. In 1995, Puck earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records with its amazing capabilities.
Linguistic Geniuses: 2. The Oldest Budgie
Budgie Charlie was born in April 1948 and did not stop warbling before June 1977 – at the age of 29 years and 2 months! This record has also been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1995. Thus, Charlie officially is the world’s oldest budgie.
Linguistic Geniuses: 3. Budgie Inspires Opera
Sparkie Williams lived from 1954 to 1962 and was a talking budgie with a special talent: It knew eight nursery rhymes and 380 sentences by heart and could say more than 500 words. During a competition organized by the British broadcasting service BBC, Sparkie beat 2,768 other talking budgies and became a kind of celebrity in Britain. An album featuring Sparkie’s voice was recorded and sold 20,000 times. The budgie also inspired the British composer Michael Nyman and the German musician Carsten Nicolai to write an opera. It is called “Sparkie: Cage and Beyond” and was performed first in Berlin in March 2009.
Budgies can utter eleven different sounds, but they are mainly known for their typical warbling sound.
150 Images per Second
A budgie can perceive up to 150 images per second. For comparison: Humans can see about 16 images per second. If a movie ran at eight frames per second, we could perceive the images one by one – just like budgies. They have problems with normal household lamps, which are permanently flickering in their perception. What is the reason? Not the lamps, but the electricity from the socket. It is an alternating current at a frequency of 50 Hz. The human eye is too slow, but the frequency of 50 Hz is extremely slow for budgies, so that the light appears to be permanently flickering for them. This is why bird owners use electronic control gear to increase the Hertz value.
Budgies Have Three Eyelids
Budgies have an upper, a lower, and an inner lid to protect the bird’s eye.
Rotate the Head by 180 Degrees
Budgies can rotate their head by 180 degrees. This helps them in the wild to look in all directions in order to detect birds of prey early enough. You can watch a budgie rotate its head by 180 degrees when it is going to sleep. It puffs itself up und then turns its head to hide it under one of its wings.
Short Range Aircraft
Budgies cannot build up fat depots and are therefore unable to fly long and exhausting distances. They literally lack the “power” other birds draw from their fat resources. They can maximally cover a distance of up to 62 miles (100 km) in a nonstop 3-hour flight.
The Enemies of the Budgie
Girl or Boy?
It is very easy to determine the gender of a budgie. Many budgies have a blue or reddish-brown to white waxlike skin called “cere” (featherless area around the nose, above the beak). Male budgies have a blue cere, females a reddish-brown to white cere. Young budgies normally have a pink cere.
Budgies and Their Offspring
Normally, budgies lay about 4–6 eggs, which are incubated by the female birds. The young birds hatch after about 18 days and do not weigh more than 0.07 oz (2 g). After 30–35 days they are already able to fly.
Be Careful With These Foods!
Some foods and liquids are like poison for budgies: Avocado, chocolate, coffee, coffein, onions as well as products containing lactose.
How Long Do Budgies Live?
It is assumed that budgies can get 15 to 17 years old. Their normal life expectancy is 5 to 10 years.
“Hansi-Bubi” is not the average name of a budgie but indicates a breed of small budgies that come closest to the wild budgerigar.
Budgies are green by nature, but today there are the most diverse color variants from yellow, yellow/green to white and blue.
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