Why do budgies talk?

Recently, Bill Marks from Australia wrote to Burke's Backyard to tell them about his amazing budgerigar, Frederick. Freddie is a male budgie of 4 years old who has an amazing vocabulary. When they visited Bill and Freddie, the budgie introduced himself, welcomed Burke's Backyard to their house, told them what he likes to eat and even asked Don Burke if he liked the garden.










Freddie has learnt about 85 phrases during these four years, including really long sentences. While he was chatting happily with the people from Burke's backyard, he said things like:

"Hello, how are you today?"
"What's your name? Mine's Frederick. Welcome to our house."
"You're a funny man Bill."
"Dick Smith is a true Aussie, just like me."
"Don do you like our garden?"
"Pop cleans my house every day."
"Bill, where's the pussycat?"
"I can talk the leg off an iron pot, can't I Bill."
"More spinach please pop."

"See you later alligator."
"I'm a clever little boy, aren't I?"
"My pop can do anything."
"I'd like some corn please."
"Juliet it's Romeo calling."
"Elementary my dear William."
"I prefer celery to apple."
"Have a good day."
"Bill don't interrupt when I'm talking."

Now, why is it that budgies talk? Don explains that it's no coincidence that male budgerigars are the best talkers. In the wild, each budgerigar, the females in particular, have their own song. When two budgies mate, the male learns to imitate the song from the female, so that a bond is formed between them. A pet budgie wants to do the same thing, he wants to talk to his owner who takes care of him, to create a bond. They want to sing the same song, and the best way to do that is to speak the same language - our language!

Pictures and information from http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/