Budgerigar
The budgerigar is a small grass parakeet from the arid interior of Australia and is by a wide margin the most commonly kept pet bird in the world.
Wild budgies are green and yellow with black barring; the blues, greys, whites and pieds are all captive colour mutations.
Show budgerigars have been bred substantially larger than wild ones and have a shorter lifespan as a result. Budgies are sociable, active and surprisingly capable talkers — the record for the largest vocabulary of any bird is held by a budgerigar, not a parrot of any larger species.
- Origin
- Inland Australia
- Size
- 18 cm wild type; show birds larger
- Lifespan
- 5–10 years; show lines often shorter
- Diet
- Pellets or a good seed mix, greens, cuttlefish
- Temperament
- Sociable, active, curious, tames readily
- Noise
- Modest — chattering rather than screaming
3 budgerigar photos, newest first
Living with a budgerigar
Keep at least two unless you can give a single bird a great deal of attention; budgies are flock birds.
The cage should be wide rather than tall, with room to fly between perches, and daily time outside it.
An all-seed diet is the most common welfare problem in the species and leads to obesity, fatty liver disease and iodine deficiency. Pellets or a varied mix with vegetables, and millet as a treat rather than a staple.
Watch for scaly face mite around the beak and cere. Non-stick fumes, aerosols and scented candles are fatal to a bird this size very quickly.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual birds vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
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