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Budgerigar

Melopsittacus undulatus

Photo by MartinL
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

A small green parakeet with yellow head and blue tail. This one is a male. These gregarious seed eaters can live in flocks of many thousands.

Habitat:

These are captive at the Melbourne zoo.

Notes:

They occur widely throughout the continent of Australia and adapt well to dry habitats. Color forms occur only by domestication. They are the worlds most popular pet, not counting cats and dogs, and probably goldfish.

Reference Links:

Budgerigar

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (8)
MartinL
Thanks Karen, Keith and Adarsha
MartinL
Keith. Green color is achieved by genes for blue and yellow. Domestic breeds lacking blue gene are yellow and if the yellow gene is missing the bird is blue with a white head. Other forms occur. These are all budgies AKA parakeets. Parakeet is a loosely defined name for some small parrots.
keithp2012
I saw a show that some feather glow for birds that see UV light so to another bird they are twice as pretty!
MrsPbio
I think the wild ones are normally green. The other colors showed up via selective breeding for pets . I actually think the green ones are the prettiest!
keithp2012
Do they come in white,yellow, and blue or are those only pet parakeets?
MartinL
Thanks Ali. Its our smallest parrot.

Spotted for Missions

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Birds of the World
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Captive Animals

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Photographed
PublishedAugust 21, 2013

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