Chapter 1 - Budgies in the Wild and as Pets
Want more FREE books?
Get thousands more at Freebiesave.org!
Many people are surprised at how much personality can be packed into such a small bird! The colorful budgie (also widely known as a parakeet) is playful, energetic, entertaining, easy to train, and sometimes even talkative. It is no wonder that surveys often place the budgie as the most popular or the second most popular pet bird in American households.
Because of their small stature, budgies aren't always thought of as parrots, but they are. Parrots form a very large group, or order, of birds known as the Psittaciformes, which contains about 342 different bird species. The order is broken into two families: the Cacatuidae, or cockatoos; and the Psittacidae, the parrots. The term parrot can indicate either the family or the order. Some scientists believe there should be a third family, the Loriidae, containing just the lories and lorikeets.
Budgies have been highly sought-after pet birds since the mid-1860s, when they were brought from Australia to England and the European continent. Today, domestically bred budgies are one of the most popular pet birds in America.
There are many names for the budgie. Scientists call this little Australian parrot Melopsittacus undulatus. Some historical references use the term Australian shell parakeet. About fifty years ago, another and more unusual name ‘budgerigar’ began to appear often in books and articles about pet birds. Although this name sounds strange at first, its shortened form ‘budgie’ rolls off the tongue with ease.
This book uses the term budgie, although many people still identify this bird as the parakeet. It is true that the budgie can be classified as a parakeet but certainly not as the only one. The term parakeet can apply to any member of the Psittacidae family who is relatively small, is slender, and has a long, pointed tail. Australia alone has more than two dozen species that fit under the general term parakeet, and many of the Mexican, South American, and Central American conures (also parrots) could be called parakeets on the basis of their size and shape. In southern Asia and Africa, several species of very long-tailed, bright-green little parrots are also commonly known as parakeets.
Now let's get to know something about the budgie, the most popular parakeet of all.
The Wild Budgie
A wild budgie is a small, slender parrot with a pointed tail, pointed wings, and a small beak. The wild budgie is typically seven-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half inches long overall, with central tail feathers three-and-a-half to four inches long (roughly half the bird's total length). The wings are long and pointed, with each wing roughly four inches long, so the wingspan is less than a foot. Wild budgies are much smaller but similar in structure to the American budgies, the birds you are likely to find in a pet store. American budgies are two to three inches smaller in length than the typical English budgies, who have been bred for competitive showing. The English budgies can be quickly identified by their large heads, which are round and bulging rather than small and tapered. (The English budgie is discussed in greater detail in a later chapter.)
Like other parrots, budgies can turn their heads 180 degrees so they can reach the important oil gland (the uropygial gland) at the upper base of the tail; budgies smear the oily secretions onto their beaks and then spread the oil over their feathers to make them more waterproof. A wet budgie keeps some dry plumage even during a rain storm or a light bath.
The budgie's beak is small, and its base is covered with feathers that can be fluffed out to enclose almost all but the tip of the beak. The upper beak is longer than the lower beak and is sharply pointed; the shorter lower beak fits into the upper beak and ends in a squarish tip. The tip of the lower beak fits against ridges in the upper beak that allow the budgie's thick, specialized tongue to roll an individual seed between the two parts of the beak until the seed's outer coating is split and rolled off, thus hulling the seed before it is passed into the mouth and then down toward the stomach. Above the beak is a wide area of featherless skin that contains the nostrils. This area, called the cere, can vary in color, depending on the age and the sex of the bird.
A budgie's feet are large, with four unequal-sized toes ending in long, sharp nails. The toes form an X (a pattern known as zygodactylous, common to all parrots), allowing the budgie to firmly grasp both large and small perches. The legs are short and mostly hidden under the feathers, giving the budgie a characteristic waddling walk.
Wild budgies are predominantly bright green, with yellow heads and throats and black feather markings--certainly not the variety of colors and shades you can find in a pet store. These limited colors allow wild budgies to blend with the colors of both the soils and grasses when they drop to the 14 ground to feed. An adult wild-type budgie is bright green from the upper chest to under the tail and on the rump (the part of the body above the base of the tail); the back, head, and neck are bright yellow. The body is heavily marked with black spots and crescents on the back and with many fine, horizontal black lines on the nape of the neck and the back of the head. The face is bright yellow, with three large black spots on each side of the throat. The eyes are rather small, have whitish irises, and are surrounded by a narrow band of featherless skin, pinkish to bluish in color.
The Budgie's Scientific Classification
Although often called a parakeet, the budgerigar, or budgie, also has a scientific name that is standard among ornithologists, breeders, and pet owners around the world:
Melopsittacus undulatus.
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Genus: Melopsittacus
Species: undulates
The tops of the wild budgie's wings are yellow and black, with green to black flight feathers (also called primaries); the undersides have a wide yellow bar and black primaries. The tail feathers are mostly blue-green and sometimes yellow on top, but the shorter feathers near the base are mostly yellow underneath; the central tail feathers are blue-green both on top and underneath.
Immature budgies differ little from adults, but from the time they leave the nest with their first set of feathers until they molt into their adult plumage (at about four months old), they can be distinguished by their somewhat duller colors, the absence or near absence of throat spots, and the continuation of the fine horizontal black lines from their napes over their crowns to the base of their beaks. If the crown and area above the beak are not one solid color, then the bird is almost certainly a baby. Young birds also have all-black eyes; the pupils become paler with age.
Betcherrygah
When the first English explorers questioned the Australian Aborigines about the local fauna, the explorers asked for the common names of the birds they saw, including the budgie. They were told that abundant bird was called a betcherrygah (sometimes spelled budgerygah). Further questioning led the explorers to interpret the word to mean "good bird." When the Aboriginal language was better understood, it was clear that "good" in this case meant "good to eat."
As mentioned, the budgies you see in a pet store may look quite different from the wild birds. Pets can be all yellow or all green, different shades of green or blue, or white, and the black markings may be faint or even nonexistent. Breeders have carefully and intentionally bred for these color varieties, which first appeared naturally as genetic mutations in pet 16 birds; you'll never find them in nature. If a color mutation appeared in a wild budgie, the bird would stick out like a sore thumb in a flock of all green and yellow budgies and would attract predators; a short life span would reduce the likelihood of mating and passing on the mutation to any offspring.
All wild budgies have the green and yellow coloring. This color pattern allows budgies to blend into their surroundings and avoid predators
RANGE AND HABITAT
Budgies are strictly Australian birds. They gather in large flocks of dozens to thousands of birds who can be found almost anywhere in the dry interior plains of Australia and on the Indian Ocean shores of the continent. These birds do not tolerate even moderately wet habitats. Budgies occasionally appear in Tasmania, but those are thought to be escaped pets and not natural populations. Budgies truly are birds of deserts; extremely arid plains; and open, dry savannas with only sparse vegetation.
Because budgies are nomadic, it is difficult to pin down where any group of birds might be at any time of the year. The flocks move around constantly, following the rains; water is rare and rains are unpredictable, so grasses and other foods may not appear in one specific spot for several years. Flocks of thousands of birds may descend on shallow lakes that appear with annual rains. There they spend several weeks feeding on new grass and breeding. As is true for many other desert birds, the population numbers rise and fall depending on the weather--after many years of drought, a high percentage of budgies die, and the species may become relatively uncommon in an area; but the next extended period of rainfall and subsequent breeding season quickly return the species to normal numbers.
Although a budgie's natural coloring is green and yellow only, pet budgies like these are available in a variety of colors and shades--including the normal (wild) green.
FEEDING AND BREEDING
In nature, budgies feed on ripe and ripening seeds of a great array of grasses, especially the spinifex and Mitchell grasses that are common to the dry interior of Australia. But budgies also eat seeds of shrubby eucalyptus species and, when necessary, will eat wheat and other cultivated crops. It is likely that wild budgies will eat almost anything green or seedy if more traditional foods are not available.
Like most desert parrots, budgies are most active for an hour or less after sunrise and then for another hour or so before sunset when temperatures are relatively low. Although they can survive temperatures over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit for a while, they are stressed by such extremes and do much better in ranges from the upper sixties to the low eighties. When winter comes, budgies often move to warmer climates, although they can tolerate temperatures as low as the mid-forties.
The unpredictability of food and water in the wild dictates budgies' breeding habits. Their young leave the nest and mature early, compared with other parrots, as an adaptation for survival; if the adult birds had to incubate the eggs and feed the chicks for months instead of weeks, the water and grasses would probably disappear before the nestlings could fly.
Wild budgies are primarily seed eaters who feed on the ground. Your budgie may also happily munch on seeds and pellets placed in a cup on the cage floor.
Wild budgies nest primarily during the periods when rains and food are most likely to be abundant, but nesting seasons are unpredictable. Birds from the northern part of the range often breed at a different time from those in the south because climate patterns in Australia usually produce rains at different times in these areas. Unlike many other nomadic Australian parrots, budgies seldom approach the eastern coast during the winter, so they are seldom found in major Australian cities.
Like almost all other parrots, budgies lay their white eggs in a hole in a rotting branch or tree trunk and don't line the nest with straw or feathers. And, as is true of other parrots (but not cockatoos), the male feeds the female during nesting, and she seldom leaves the nest to look for food until the chicks are fairly grown and able to maintain their own body temperatures.
From Australia to England to America
The first Australian birds made their way to England on the ships of Captain James Cook, an English explorer who traveled to the eastern coast of Australia in the 1770s. Naturalists and others traveling with Cook collected a few birds and other animals and brought them back to Europe. These extremely rare specimens drew lots of interest from British and other European scientists, who named them according to the recently formulated rules of Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist who revolutionized taxonomy (the naming and classification of plants and animals).
On the basis of travelers' descriptions of a small green and yellow bird found in New South Wales on the southeastern coast of Australia, British naturalist George Shaw named the budgie Psittacus undulatus--a parrot (all parrots were placed in the genus Psittacus) with fine wavy lines over the back and nape of the neck.
Budgies and cockatiels--other small parrots native to Australia--sometimes form mixed flocks in the wild, traveling together to find food and water.
The first live budgies were brought to England in 1838 by painter John Gould, who not only visited Australia but also had family contacts there. Gould put budgies in a new genus, Melopsittacus (singing parrot), because of their melodious whistles or warbles. This gave us the current name Melopsittacus undulatus.
Gould and his friends and business associates soon were importing more budgies into England and elsewhere in Europe, where they found ready buyers among upper-class hobbyists willing to exchange gold for these new additions to their cages and aviaries.
Budgies caused a sensation among fanciers wanting rare, expensive animals for their collections, and it wasn't long before budgies were being bred in high numbers in captivity. Imports continued into Europe until 1894, when Australia passed regulations forbidding further exportation.
Breeding budgies became a very profitable business in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany, countries that long had traditions of commercially raising many types of unique pets. Budgies commanded high prices, and if you were a banker or a duke or had similar stature, you had to have a pair to keep up with your friends. When an all-yellow budgie mutation appeared in Belgium in 1875, followed by blue mutations in the early 1880s, interest in these birds grew, and prices for the mutations often reached well into three figures. The blue birds proved especially popular in Japan after they were imported by a Japanese prince in 1925.
Budgies had reached the United States by the late 1920s, where they became extremely popular. Soon every home had to have a little cage with a budgie (preferably all blue or all yellow) sitting in it. Books about how to care for budgies were published, budgies appeared in print ads, and talking budgies even appeared on radio shows. They became even more popular in the 1950s, when they competed with canaries as the most popular pet birds.
Today, budgies can be found in more than twenty color mutations, and perhaps as many as one hundred varieties are widely available to breeders and pet bird owners, although most of those seen in pet shops are either yellow, green, blue, white, or green and yellow (as in the wild). No matter what color, all budgies have great pet potential and are relatively inexpensive to purchase and care for. By buying a budgie, you join hundreds of thousands of dedicated pet bird owners who have found budgerigars to be truly wonderful pet parrots.
All-yellow budgies, and all-blue budgies were all the rage in early twentieth-century America.
Want more FREE books?
Get thousands more at Freebiesave.org!