Green in the wild
Wild budgies are always green and yellow, and fly in flocks of thousands across the Australian outback. Blue, white and yellow ones were bred later.
Parrots · Time every day
Budgerigar
Small parrot · from the Australian outback
A small, slim parrot, green with a yellow head, black scalloped bars on its back and wings, and a long blue tail.
- Size
- About 18cm long
- Lives for
- 5 to 10 years
- Suits
- Families: the classic first bird
Flits after you, chattering. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the budgie
A record-breaking talker
A budgie called Puck holds the record for the largest vocabulary of any bird: more than 1,700 words.
Blue for a boy
The patch above the beak is usually blue in a grown male and brown or pale in a female.
The most popular pet bird
There are more pet budgies in the world than any other bird.
It can turn its head right round
Like other parrots it can turn its head 180 degrees.
An old name
Its name is said to come from an Aboriginal word, though nobody is sure what it meant.
The real thing
Photos of the budgie
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
Keep two together in the widest cage you can, with natural wood perches and toys. Feed seed or pellets with fresh greens, and let them fly in a safe room every day.
Before you get one
Budgies are cheerful, hardy and inexpensive, and a good choice for a first bird. A single budgie needs hours of your company every day.
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