Budgie Whistling

Whistling match

Budgies love whistling and chirping; it shows that they're in a good mood. Budgies are social birds and love to communicate with each other, but also with you! It can be a fun bonding experience to teach your budgie a few tunes. It's a good way to make them used to you. They might learn some of the tunes very quickly and start whistling them for you when you come home!

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Using repetition is a good way to teach your budgie whistling tunes. You can do it each time you walk past the cage and make a little game out of it with your budgie, a "whistling match".

Singing reflection in the mirror

Budgies get attached to their family and flock mates, but when they are held in captivity, they absolutely value any sign of a living budgie. That is why budgies are attracted to their mirror image. The end result of this attachment is usually a series of excited chirping and dancing around the mirror. Just like they like to play whistling matches with you, they also like to do it with their fellow budgies.

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There is some concern with mirrors amongst budgie owners. Some believe that your budgie may fall in love with the mirror bird and never form a bond with you. I don't think this can actually happen for real, unless you're only keeping one bird. Budgies desperately need a companion of their own kind and when they don't have it, they will go crazy in front of the mirror. I can imagine that happens, so again, I want to advise every budgie owner to have at least two budgies.

Strange noises

Budgies also tend to pick up the strangest noises: microwave beeps, noises from other animals or machines, your voice saying "good night, my baby" and much more. You would be surprised at what your bird can learn to mimic! So if you hear a funny noise, it could be your budgie talking :)

Whistling or talking?

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Some people believe that if you whistle to your budgies, they will lose the will to talk to you. But this is most probably a myth. In general, budgies only learn to talk when they want to. That means you have to keep them happy. And by whistling, you keep them happy because they really enjoy it, like they enjoy music. So there is nothing wrong with it :)