A chirpy little flock you’ll find at Petland are the Budgerigars, or Budgies for short. These extremely popular parakeets are native to Australia! In their natural habitat, you would see green and yellow budgies, but at Petland, you’ll find a stunning variety of colors, including blues, yellows, whites, and lavenders. The first blue budgie wasn’t seen until 1878.
Budgies live in large flocks in the wild and truly love and need company; they should always be housed with a buddy. You can tell males and females apart by their cere, an area just above their nostrils. Males have a dark blue cere, while females have a lighter cere that may be pink, white, or pale blue.
Budgies have remarkable vision and can see in ultraviolet! They have feathers on their cheeks and the crown of their head that reflect ultraviolet light. With four types of color-sensing cells in their eyes, compared to humans’ three, they have very acute vision and can register over 150 images per second, whereas humans can only register 16.
Did you know budgies can talk? For years, the record for the bird with the most extensive vocabulary shifted between an African Grey parrot and a budgie. Currently, a budgie named Puck from California holds the title for the largest vocabulary of any bird, knowing how to say a whopping 1,728 words!
