Budgerigar (wild)

The 'budgie' is possibly Australia's best known parrot. Call is series of fast chip-chip sounds repeated faster or slower as the birds fly or flee from danger. They are often found in large flocks and are an awesome sight as they wheel through the sky in incredibly fast flight. This is not as common a sight as it once was as populations drop over the years. The natural colour of wild budgies is a bright green and yellow with black scalloped barring on head, back and wings, with a tiny blue patch on the cheek and some blue in the tail and wing feathers. Having been bred in captivity for such a long time the budgies now come in a variety of colours adapted from the genetic diversity selectively bred through generations, variations in size also now occurs as does some aspects of body shape of captive birds. A shy but chatty little bird growing to almost 20cm, long thin tail that can be fanned out. A seed eating parrot the budgie is also known by other names including shell parakeet or parakeet and is known worldwide as a favourite pet.