Facts about Budgies

Lively, colorful, popular: budgies (Budgerigar) have stolen the heart, living rooms and decks of many bird-lovers in Crete. To show how versatile these little birds can be, we'll examine six facts concerning the life of our fine-feathered friends. Perhaps you will discover some things you did not know.

 Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus), is a small parrot and the only species in the Australian genus. It is a small long-tailed predominantly green and yellow bird with black scalloped markings on the wings and shoulders in the wild, but the bird has been bred extensively, resulting in a profusion of colour forms. Thus, aviary birds may be blue and white, all yellow, all white, or various other combinations, except red. Since Budgies don't have a red pigment in their DNA, breeders tried feeding them red pepper to get the scarlet colour, but to no avail.

1. Wild budgies have green feathers, which affords them a perfect camouflage. But green is also for another important function; If, during their long flights, they see something green on the ground, they know they found a resting place where they can recharge their "batteries."

2. Most birds fall in love while chirping in the sunshine. Budgies, however, don’t get romantic until the first dark clouds appear. By the time the rains come, they are so strongly stimulated that the females start laying eggs immediately. It's a logical time, since, with the first rain, plants start new cycles, providing food, water and resting places.

3. Budgies don’t build actual nests for their offspring. They search for small abandoned cave-like cavities, or hollows, or trees which they clean and re-arrange.  If the enclosures need to be a bit bigger, the female Budgie, which has a stronger beak, pecks away at the job.

4. The art of surviving has to be perfect when Budgies fall on difficult times. In Australia, during the drought which lasts for months, thousands of budgies die. But many more survive because they have the ability to get moisture out of the smallest seed. They use every food - or water- source, and reproduce as fast as possible.

5. Combating these life-threatening situations demands perfect coordination of the Budgies' senses, which function as weapons in their daily struggle to survive. With perfect vision, they can see from the sky the colours, which "tell" them where to find food and water. Also, their sight helps them to react faster when attacked. In those times of stress, the little bird's heart beats between 240 and 600 times a minute, compared to a human heart, which thumps 60 to 70 times a minute, when stressed.

6. Budgies "march" in big troop formations from water hole to water hole and from rain shower to rain shower. They travel over 100 kilometres a day, and, thanks to their sharp instinct, which no scientist can explain, they always find a place where there is food or water. They have been known to somehow arrive at a brook, which at that exact moment comes back to life after being dry for months.