The First White Budgerigar

Photo © lightsflashlightsflash on tumblr

The first white budgie was recorded in England and France between 1917-1920. This white budgie was the offspring of a blue and yellow budgie.

Nest boxes for budgies

Building nest boxes for budgies is not common, as there are many commercially available nest boxes, such as a small wicker nest, a covered nest and a wooden box nest.

How to Build Nest Boxes for Budgies -- powered by ehow

When are budgies ready to breed? (2)

When budgies are older than one year, it is considered safe for them to become parents. Apart from knowing their age, you should also keep a close eye on their health.

Food regurgitation is a part of the mating ritual among budgerigars. Image © allaboutbudgies.com

In order to have a successful first nest, both the father and the mother bird need to be in tip top health. You have to make sure that there are none of the most common signs of illness:

• sitting puffed up continually
• discharge present on feathers above nostrils
• lethargy, quietness, listlessness
• vomiting or diarrhoea
• inability to balance
• accumulated poop on vent feathers
• itching all over, scaly face or legs; this may indicate mites

Female budgie in breeding condition. Photo © the Talk Budgies forum

If you're not completely sure, you can still take the birds to your vet to get a checkup.When both of your budgies are perfectly healthy, the breeding conditions are already favourable. There also has to be a strong bond between both budgies (not all budgies like each other!). Last but not least, you can sometimes tell from your budgies' ceres when they are in breeding condition. Females will mostly have a dark brown cere (or turning brown) while the males will have an even to deep blue cere.

When are budgies ready to breed? (1)

You might be curious about this if you have a couple of budgies yourself. In fact, there is more than one way to tell when your budgies are mentally en physically ready to breed.

Young parents

I'll start off with the most obvious one: age. You must know how old your birds are before you put a nesting box in the cage. Even though budgies are physically ready to breed by the age of 6 months, they are simply too young to rear offspring. Six months for a budgie equals about 13 years in human age, these budgies are too young and not mentally ready to be parents. In the worst case, the mother could eat the eggs, abandon the nest too early or attack the hatchlings. So you can already see, there are some things to be considered first, before you put a nesting box on the shopping list.

Photo © Milan on My Opera

So when are they ready?

The youngest that most budgie breeders accept as safe is a full year. Many feel that 18 months is even better. It's better to give your birds all the time they need before they start on a nest.

What if I give them too much time?

You also might want to know if your budgies are too old to breed. Female budgies mostly breed when they are between 1 - 3 years old. When it comes to male budgies, this can be extended to six years.

Poll results: how many budgies do you own?

A month ago, I set up a new poll to find out how big a typical "budgie family" is, when it comes to budgies that are kept as pets.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who voted, I didn't expect to get such a wide response so I really appreciate it! Here are the results:

30% voted they only own one budgerigar.
24% voted they have two budgies.
17% voted they have three to four budgies (a cozy, small family)
10% voted they have five to ten budgies
5% has 10 - 20 budgies, another 5% has 20 - 50 budgies and I was surprised to find a good number of people (5%) who own over 100 budgies. Wow!
Only 1% owns 50 - 100 budgies.

I was glad to learn about this, but please keep in mind that keeping only one budgie can cause a series of problems: your bird becomes bored, frustrated and lonely and may have nightmares more frequently than budgies who sleep together in a group. It also leads to a reduced lifespan. I recommend every budgie owner to have at least two birds together. Thumbs up for the ones who keep over 100 budgies, as long as your aviary is roomy enough :)

As from today, I will set up a new poll, to find out which budgie color is more "attractive" to people than other colors. I will compare this result to the actual "beauty norm" among budgerigars (just like humans, budgies prefer a certain kind of budgie) with a word of explanation. Can't wait to see how it turns out :)

Have a nice Sunday and take good care of your feathered friends!

Inside the brutal world of budgie shows

NOTE: I'm not saying budgerigar breeders are bad people. I'm just pointing out some of the cruelties that happen for the sake of competition, and how budgies sometimes are treated as objects.

Last year, in 2010, budgie fans from over the world convened for the 85th annual Budgerigar Society Club Show, held in Doncaster (South Yorkshire).
All around you could see white, uniform display cages and in each cage was a single budgie, the result of years, sometimes decades, of careful breeding. That weekend, the room contained many of the "best-looking" budgies on the planet. In total, over 2.000 budgies were present with their owners.

But, to which degree do these breeders care about their birds?

The battle of the budgies - an article by Tom Meltzer for The Guardian

Quote by Mick Freakley, twice world champion budgie breeders: "We are serious breeders. We work for decades to produce these birds, which are envied the world over. I swear to you, if there wasn't a competitive element to this I wouldn't keep them."

It gets worse:

*** WARNING (SHOCKING CONTENT) ***

When budgie breeder Andrew Pooley walked into his aviary on the eve of the great competition, the silence told him something dreadful had happened.
His fears were soon confirmed: on the eve of a big show, 21 of his prized birds had been stolen and his champion, Penmead Pride, had been stamped to death.

Andrew Pooley, whose champion budgie was killed and 21 of his birds stolen, believes he was targeted by a jealous rival. Photograph © SWNS

Pooley, from Delabole in north Cornwall, said:  "I feel terrible. It has been my life's work and Penmead Pride was my first registered champion. I can't believe it.

"Whoever took them knew what they were doing because they have taken the best of the best. It must have been someone who wanted me out of the show. This was a deliberate act of sabotage ."

It was not an isolated incident. In the world of budgies, such thefts are a serious business. "It's not people who want to let them go," says fellow hobbyist Ainley. "The chances are these birds are stolen to order, never to be shown but just for breeding purposes. Or they'll be shipped abroad."


Two more budgies were stamped to death and seven more budgies died from shock shortly afterwards.
But Pooley vowed to continue breeding birds. "I'm not going to give up and let them win," he said.

More than a financial loss

If you're expecting to hear anything that has to do with warm feelings for budgies in the following paragraphs, you can stop reading already.

Losing birds is much more than a financial upset. "It's all about bloodlines," explains 39-year-old James Theobald, a recent recruit to the hobby whom Freakley and Ainley have taken under their wing. "I'm in a position now where I'm lucky enough to get Freakley and Ainley blood. They can pick and choose who they sell to. There are millionaires who do this hobby. People would rip my right arm off to get hold of the birds I have."

Some of the prize-winning birds.

So budgies are just prize objects to those people, then?

Declining popularity

Today, there are a little over 3,000 members of the Budgerigar Society. At its height in the 50s, there were more than 20,000, and the yearly Club Show vibrated to the shrill chirruping of as many as 6,000 birds. It is, like most outdoor pastimes, a hobby in decline. The average age of breeders at the show is somewhere around 60, and what few new recruits there are come almost exclusively from budgie-fancier families. In more ways than one, breeding budgies is all about bloodlines.

All about bloodlines

Once budgies find a mate, they are inseparable. They eat and sleep together, they preen each other with a love that goes deeper than you can imagine.
Often, budgie breeders separate a pair that is already together in order to obtain the right combination of bloodlines. More than once, these attempts have resulted in nothing else but the death of one of the budgies, because they were forced to do something they couldn't do.

Image © animals.desktopnexus.com

Images and information are © to The Guardian

Him or her?

 A male and female budgie go best together. Photo (c) kellynguyen67

You're standing in front of the budgie cage in the pet store, pondering over which budgie you should buy. That lovely blue-white pied female or the pretty seafoam green male with the yellow head. Tough choice!

The best answer is: him AND her!

Budgies are the happiest when a male and female can form a pair. But take it easy, you can't have baby budgies without a good nest box!
Did you know that coconuts were used for nest boxes when budgies were first imported in the UK? Read the full story here.

Budgies can't be kept alone. Budgies in the wild live in huge flocks, and that's the way domesticated budgies want it as well. The more budgies, the merrier! If you want to buy just one budgie, you will have to give it all your attention, but it still won't do. Your bird will always miss a companion of the same kind and will never be really happy as long as there is none. Therefore, a minimum of two budgies is strongly advised.

• If you have a pair of budgies, you will find it a lot easier to study the behaviour of the little parrots. You will discover how the male and female budgie spend their days together, cuddling and flirting and playing. It's a lot more fun for your budgies, but also for you!
• Male budgies can also live together. But it's not very exciting for the birds nor for you. You won't see as much of their true personality, compared to when you have a pair of budgies of the opposite sex (or a whole aviary of them)
• It's wiser not to keep two female budgies together. There is often hostility between females, and you don't want to see them fighting.

Export Prohibition / Globetrotter Budgies

Australia has been home to the wild budgerigars for at least five million years. Image (c) Bush Budgies

The home of the budgerigar is in Australia. They were discovered by the money forger Thomas Watling in 1792. Budgerigars were able to live in freedom until 1840, when the first live specimens were caught and exported to England.

The shipping of budgerigars was a very severe ordeal. The birds had little to no chances of survival, because no one knew what kind of food and care budgerigars needed. In fact, very little was known about budgerigars, because no one had ever studied a live specimen. Most of the budgerigars that did survive the whole journey often died shortly afterwards. This nightmare went on for years and the trade with budgerigars rose in such leaps and bounds that the Australian government finally imposed an export prohibition for budgerigars in 1884. This export prohibition is still valid today, although the budgerigar doesn't belong to the list of the threatened species in Australia.

Budgerigars huddled together in cold and rainy Western Europe. Image (c) Alieh S.

The few birds that survived the shipping journey were pampered in every way possible in order to keep them alive and happy (and to encourage them to breed, of course). There is a positive consequence linked to this: it is so easy to breed budgerigars today that no one bothers to catch them in the wild anymore. Just like globetrotters, they have travelled all over the world.

Budgerigars can be found all over the world, although their natural habitat remains in Australia. Image (c) Wikipedia

The first breeding result was based on pure luck. A female budgie had crawled through the small hole of an excavated coconut and gave birth to a nest of baby budgies, right there inside that coconut! By the end of the 19th century, yellow budgies started to appear and in 1910 the first blue budgie attracted many surprised people to an exhibition. Today, there are millions of colour and mutation variations, some of them more extraordinary than the others.

When budgerigars were first imported into the UK, people chose coconuts as nest boxes for budgies, thanks to the first breeding success! Image (c) Barrie's Budgerigars.

Colours & Mutations (7)

Some very rare budgie mutations

• Anthracite (black budgies)

The anthracite budgie has a very, very dark grey or black body colour. All markings are normal, except for the cheek patches, which are also black. The darkening effect of a single factor anthracite budgie is similar to what a single dark factor does. A budgie that is double factor anthracite appears as the true anthracite variety with the black body colour.



















Left: the anthracite budgie has a very dark body colour and black cheek patches.
Right: This yellow-faced blue budgie has the standard blue cheek patches.

• Blackface

Blackface is a new mutation that produces a budgie with a striping pattern that runs over his whole body. This mutation also causes a darkening of the body feather colour. These budgies are extremely rare and not known to be kept anywhere else than in the Netherlands.

















Two blackface budgies (photos from tailfeathersnetwork.com)

• Mottled

A mottled budgie looks like a normal budgie when it hatches. But after every molt, more and more feathers grow back as clear feathers, forming a colour pattern that looks much more random than a pied budgie. Some mottled budgies eventually become all clear.



















Mottled budgies: they look a bit fluffy, which is really sweet. Notice the random colour pattern (photos: budgieplace.com)

• Lacewing

A lacewing is in fact a combination of a lutino/albino and a cinnamon. The budgie is either mostly yellow or mostly white, the body feather colour is only slightly visible. The budgie's markings are of a light cinnamon colour and the cheek patches are violet. A lacewing has red/pink eyes. The adult male has purple ceres, while the female keeps the normal white, brown or tan ceres.

Photo: a lacewing budgie, almost entirely white, but the blue body feather colour is slightly visible on its belly.

• Half-Sider

This budgie looks very astonishing but it is not a true variety, because the trait is not genetically inherited. It is actually a result of genetic abnormalities, a form of congenital chimerism, in which fraternal twin zygotes fuse together at a very early stage in the womb, forming one individual creature.

















Half-sider budgie: extremely rare. (Photos from budgieplace.com)

Colours & Mutations (6)

I saved these budgies for last: the rare and unique colour and pattern mutations. You won't see these kinds in a pet store, only in budgie exhibitions.

• Crested

In this variety, the feathers on top of the budgie's head point awry, forming a crest.
There are three types of crested budgies: full-circular crest, half-circular crest and the tufted crest.
















Left: full-circular crest: the head feathers form a full circle from the central point of the head.
Middle: half-circular crest: the head feathers radiate halfway or partway around the head.
Right: tufted crest: the head feathers point up and/or backwards, forming a tuft.

• Fallow

This is also a very special budgie variety. A fallow budgie's body colour is mostly diluted, but you can still see it on the rump. They have pink/red irises and a brownish striping pattern. Adult males have purple ceres while females keep the normal white, tan or brown ceres.

Blue fallow budgies: the body feathers are diluted, but the blue colour is visible on the rump.

• Saddleback

Saddleback budgies have very thin grey markings on the head and the neck. The area between the shoulders and the top of the wings (V-shaped) has almost no markings, leaving a clear "saddle" behind. Saddleback budgies look a lot like the Opaline variety, but Opalines have black markings in stead of grey markings. Also, the background colour of the wings and back of an Opaline budgie are identical to the budgie's body colour whereas saddlebacks have only the base colour in those places (white or yellow).

Two saddleback budgies: soft grey markings on the upper half of the wings, V-shaped yellow or white area between the neck and top of the wings.

• Texas Clearbody

The standard for the Texas Clearbody is to have no colour in the body feathers except for the base colour yellow or white. There can be some degree of colour, though, if the body feather colour is diluted. In that case, the body colour is visible near toward the rump feathers. The wing markings are black but fade to grey toward the tip of the wings.





















Two Texas Clearbody budgies: the one on the right has colour dilution up to 50%, but the body feather colour is clearly visible near the rump and tail.

• Slate

Just like grey and violet, slate is a colour-adding factor. Slate produces a dark bluish grey, which varies slightly according to the dark factor of the budgie. It can be present in a green budgie, but will only produce a darkening effect. The true slate appears only on white-based budgies and this variety is extremely rare.
















Slate budgies have a dark grey-blue colour. Photos: budgieplace.com

Colours & Mutations (5)

What are pied mutations?

Pied markings basically means that areas of colours are missing on a budgie, leaving a clear patch of white or yellow. Depending on the intensity of these markings, your budgie either has a few white or yellow patches, or ends up being nearly all white or yellow.

• Dominant pied

Dominant pied budgies have pied markings on their wings and body, and may also have a clear patch on their head . Double-factor dominant pied budgies are a bit different because they have very little markings, so they get easily confused with recessive pied budgies. You can tell them apart by checking the irises. Dominant pied budgies' eyes turn light with maturity, while recessive pied budgies have dark eyes all their life.

Photo above: dominant pied (birdaday.com)

• Recessive pied

Recessive budgies usually have mostly clear feathers, so that the base colour yellow or white remains. In general, you can find a patch of original body colour near the lower part of the belly. Adult male budgies of the recessive pied variation have purple ceres. Females have the normal white, tan or brown ceres.












The difference between a recessive pied and a double-factor dominant pied is very subtle. The best way to find out is to check their irises (the budgie on the left is recessive pied since it has solid dark eyes) or you can look at the bottom of their belly - the one on the left also has a patch of the original body colour, which is typical for recessive pied budgies.

• Clearflight pied

Clearflight pied budgies look a lot like other pied budgies. The distinguishing features here are the clear primary wing feathers and long tail feathers. These will either be yellow or white (base colours). Usually, a clearflight pied will also have some small patches of clear feathers around the neck and head.

Here is a beautiful example of a clearflight pied budgie. This one has not so many pied markings, but the primary wing feathers and tail are entirely white which makes the bird even more extraordinary. Photo from budgie-info.com

• Dark-eyed clear

If you combine recessive pied and clearflight pied together, you get a dark-eyed clear budgie. With these two mutations present, the budgie has no markings nor colour. If it's a yellow-based budgie, it will be yellow, and if it's white-based, it will be white. Their eyes never grow lighter with age, hence the name dark-eye. It's easy to confuse these budgies with the lutino/albino or double-factor spangle budgies, but none of these have eyes that remain dark all their life. Adult male dark-eyed clear budgies have purple ceres and females have normal white, tan or brown ceres.














Both of these budgies look almost exactly like albino/lutino budgies, but they have dark eyes.

Colours & Mutations (4)

• Opaline

Opaline is not a colour in particular, but a striping pattern mutation. It reverses the striping pattern on the head feathers so that there are more white areas instead of black stripes. The colour of the body feathers is visible under the striping pattern on the neck and runs all the way down to the wing feathers.

Blue opaline budgie: notice how thin the black striping pattern is on the head feathers

(photo: talkbudgies.com)

• Spangle

Opaline budgies have reversed head markings. Spangle budgies have reversed markings on their wings and tail. Normally, you can see a black striping pattern with white edges, but spangle makes the wing and tail feathers almost entirely clear. Unlike opaline, spangle doesn't cause the colour of the body feathers to spread throughout the neck- and wingfeathers.
There is a possibility, though, that your budgie can be both opaline and spangle. These budgies are actually common and have a unique striping pattern.

Left: Spangle opaline budgie, with reversed markings and colours spread out all over

Right: This is a single factor spangle budgie (a budgie that is also opaline will have a pattern of colours through the wings)

Spangle has three forms (just like dark factor - cf Colour Guide (1)) : non-spangle, single factor spangle and double factor spangle.

A double-factor spangle budgie is all clear (because the markings are so thin that it looks like they have been mixed with the body feather colour) - except for the basic colour yellow or white.

• Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a special striping colour mutation: it causes the normally black markings of the head and wings to turn brown. This mutation doesn't really affect the budgie's colour, but might give their feathers a faint cinnamon tint - a warm, lovely brown shade.

Eggs

Photo: http://babahogs.blogspot.com/2009/04/budgie-breeding_30.html

To take a short break from the colour schemes, I will give you some other budgie facts:

The female budgie lays her eggs one at a time and this happens during a period of one to two days. The number of eggs varies between four and eight!
The first egg will generally hatch after eighteen days, and each chick will hatch in the order the eggs were laid. During the first few days, the mother budgie will spend all her time sitting on her baby budgies to keep them warm.

Colours & Mutations (3)

• Yellow-faced

All budgies are either yellow-based or white-based (see budgie colour guide pt 1). There are also the so-called yellow-faced budgies, something in between those two kinds. Visually, there are two types of yellow-faced budgies:

1. The mask feathers of type 1 yellow-faced budgies are all yellow and the yellow colour may also be visible in the tail feathers. The budgie is normally coloured in the body feathers.
2. Just like type one, these budgies have yellow mask feathers and tail feathers. But after the first three months of their life, something special happens: the yellow colour diffuses into the body feathers and creates a new colour, depending on the original colour of the budgie. A sky blue budgie for example, gets a seafoam green colour (which I think is really pretty).

Left: a sky blue budgie with yellow-face type 1. The colour of the body feather remains blue.
Right: a sky blue budgie with yellow-face type 2. The colour of the body feathers is bluish green.

• Lutino / albino

Lutino and albino are in fact different names for the same variety. Lutinos are yellow-based budgies and albinos are white-based budgies. Typical for these budgies is the red eye colour and the fact that all the colours and markings are effectively erased. Only the basic colours yellow and white remain.The cere of the male adult lutino / albino budgie is, unlike for other budgies, purple. Adult females have normal white or brown ceres.





















Left: a lutino male with purple ceres.
Right: an albino male with purple ceres (notice the vague red eyecolour

More information: Budgie / Parakeet Colors and Mutations Guide

Colours & Mutations (2)

What colour is your budgie ?

• Grey Factor

If a budgie has a grey factor, the colour grey will dominate the underlying colour. Yellow-based budgies will be green-grey and white-based budgies will be grey-coloured. (to find out what yellow-based and white-based means, check my last post)

Photo on the right: a white-based budgie with grey factor

• Violet Factor

The violet factor is also a colour-adding factor, but not as strong as
the grey factor. The violet factor is hard to detect, especially on yellow-based budgies.
If you look closely though, you may see a violet tinge on the body feathers around the feet and vent (budgie's poophole). True violet colour only shows up in sky blue budgies with one dark factor (cobalt blue budgies). If they carry the violet factor, they will also have a violet tinge in the body feathers near the feet.

photo: a cobalt blue budgie with violet factor or double factor (dark factor + violet factor) in sky blue budgie

• Dilution (colour is washed out)
  

In addition to dark factor, budgies can also have some degree of dilution. There are four types of dilution:

1. greywing budgies have grey markings on their head and wings (normal budgies have black markings there) + the body feather colour is about 50% diluted.
   
2. Full-body-colour greywing budgies have the same markings as normal greywing budgies, but their body feathers have a brighter colour.
3. Clearwing budgies have very light or no markings at all on their head and wings, and the body feathers are brighter.
4. Dilute budgies are washed out from head to toe. The head and wing markings are barely visible and the body colour is 80% diluted.
   

Some pictures to make it more simple ;)













from left to right: greywing, full-body-colour greywing, clearwing and dilute

More details and information: budgie/parakeet colors and mutation guide