Budgies on a Budget Trivia Quiz

Answer: Australia

Budgies, which is how we usually refer to them here, are brightly coloured, seed eating little birds with long tails. Referred to as parakeets in other countries, the budgie is also called a lovebird by some because of its tactile behaviour of gently pecking and preening other birds.

It has existed in this country for some five million years, was first described by British zoologist and botanist, George Shaw, in 1805, and given its name in 1840 by British ornithologist John Gould. Well, first described and named for the benefit for the rest of the world, that is.

Indigenous Australians have been familiar with the budgie for the past 40,000 years.

Answer: Yellow

While they are babies however, or moody teenagers, the young budgie has two dark coloured stripes which descend down to the top of its beak. It retains these until reaching adulthood. This occurs when the bird is between three to four months old. The body of the natural budgie is usually light green with black markings, the feathers are yellow and black, wings are green, black and yellow, and the tail is dark blue.

Answer: False

They're a lot smaller in fact, almost half the size of the birds of professional breeders and showers. Whether this is naturally so and domesticated birds simply overeat out of boredom is anybody's guess. I know I would if stuck in a cage all day long. Bring on the toast and Vegemite! Pet shop birds from backyard breeders tend to be closer in size to the wild birds however, although they are still larger than the wild budgerigars. To compensate for this disadvantage in size, wild birds usually live longer than those held and bred in captivity. Domesticated and purpose bred budgies can come in an amazing array of beautiful colours - blue, greyish green, spangled, violet, white, yellow and so on.

They're absolutely lovely in fact. When budgies are courting and selecting mates, their colours become brighter still.

This fascinating natural occurrence is known as fluorescing.

Answer: The area where the nostrils are located

The cere is a soft swelling found just above the beak of certain birds, such as hawks, parrots and budgerigars. I didn't know that birds actually had nostrils, so that was interesting to learn. With the budgie, the cere is a different colour depending on the sex of the bird.

When adult females aren't breeding, their ceres are naturally pale brown or white, but during breeding and child-rearing, it changes to a dark brown shade. The adult male bird usually has a royal blue cere, and young birds of both sexes have pink ceres.

It is therefore easy to tell the sex of a budgerigar by the colour of its cere.

Answer: By their behaviour

The male budgie is described as a cheerful extrovert, sociable, flirtatious and loud. A true Australian male, to be sure. The female, on the other hand, is said to be highly dominant and intolerant. Oh, how dare they make such an inherent criticism of her! How else is she supposed to control the behaviour of her mate? The head shape of the two is also different, with the male's head rounder than the female's head.

Her head is slightly flattened at the back. That's quite possibly the result of bashing it against a brick wall over her noisy mate's flirtatious antics.

Answer: Try to make themselves appear smaller

They do this by flattening their feathers as close to their little bodies as possible, thereby shrinking their normally perceived size - less satisfying mouthfuls, no doubt. They will also try to climb as high as possible if they cannot fly away, right up into the top corners of their cages, and cling there, trembling with fear.

Answer: Yes

With patience, budgerigars can be taught to speak, to whistle various tunes, to do a number of tricks, and even to play with humans. The male budgie has the ability to learn up to one hundred words, which is pretty amazing really. The little female however can't seem to be bothered learning more than a dozen words at most. So gentlemen, do bear that in mind next time you hear yourself saying that birds talk too much. Amazingly so, there was one bird in America called Puck, whose owner had taught him to say over 1,7000 words. Puck died in 1994 - quite possibly from chronic laryngitis.

Answer: Bird fancier's lung

This illness is an inflamation within the lungs which is caused by an oversensitivity to bird droppings. People such as pet store owners, breeders or hobbyists, who work with large numbers of birds, are most at risk. It is also called bird breeders lung, or pigeon breeders lung. Symptoms include chills, fever, cough and an uncomfortable sensation in the chest. For the very unlucky, hypersensitive few, these symptoms can also include anorexia, fibrosis - and even, in very rare cases, death. Squawk, that's alarming!

Answer: She has a day break between laying each egg

After the first egg emerges, the little female usually waits two days until she lays the next and then lays them on alternate days after that until her batch is complete. Perhaps the first one is a shock to her system? She then incubates the eggs for about twenty-one days.

The babies also hatch out on alternate days. Once she begins incubating, she very seldom leaves the nest, and totally relies on her mate to feed her. That's so sweet. He stops flirting long enough to tend to his little family. Some females will fight over a nest box if breeding in captivity, so if planning to breed several females, always make sure there are the equivalent number of nest boxes in the cage. Finding a suitable male for a female can also present a problem, as some male budgerigars are simply not interested in females. Oh dear.

The poor little female can still lay eggs without him, but alas, these are unfertilised and will never hatch, so she sits there all day long, day after day, breaking her little budgie heart, a feathered Rachel weeping for her children.

Answer: He's allowed to feed them when they're three weeks old

Baby budgies are born blind, completely featherless and totally helpless. For the first three weeks, the mother bird takes care of then by feeding them and keeping them constantly warm. At three weeks, poor old Mr Budgie who has been keeping the meals up to her as well as to himself, is finally allowed in to see his offspring, and is allowed to feed them as well. Occasionally however, a female budgie will utterly refuse to let the father near the children and rears them herself until they are ready to fly.

It is uncertain as to why she does this, but I have a suspicion that she could possibly be still annoyed with him over his amorous activities with that fluffy little bird in the nest next door.