Parakeet, << PAR uh keet, >> is a small member of the parrot family. Parakeets are brightly colored birds with green, red, blue, orange, yellow, or purple feathers. Their tails are either short and square, or long and pointed. The name also is spelled parrakeet, or paroquet.
Parakeets usually are affectionate and clever pets. They are natural acrobats, and can do many tricks on toy ladders and seesaws. The most common pet parakeet is the budgerigar, or budgie. This bird is native to Australia. It is also called the budgerygah, or shell parakeet. It lives well in captivity and becomes very tame.
You can tell the sex of an adult budgie by the color of the skin at the nostrils. This patch of skin is called the cere. In the male the cere is bluish, while in the female it is brownish. Most budgies can be trained to talk. It is best to start when the bird is only a few weeks old. Say the same word or phrase over and over until the budgie repeats it. Both the male and the female can learn many words. Some trainers believe males learn faster.
Many people enjoy the hobby of parakeet breeding. Amateur parakeet breeders often find the hobby both fun and profitable. The best time of the year for breeding is in the spring. Birds hatched in the spring will benefit from the sun and warmth of the summer. Special housing for the birds is necessary, because the space for one bird is inadequate for two. The female bird lays an average of five eggs. The eggs hatch in about 18 to 20 days. A parakeet may live 10 years or more.
Loading the player...Budgies playing in a cage
Seeds and fruit are the chief parakeet foods. Wild parakeets nest in trees and are swift fliers. Many species live in warm parts of the world. The ground parakeet of Australia and Tasmania nests in bushes. The lovebird is a small, colorful African parakeet. One of the largest parakeets is the slatyheaded parakeet of India, Thailand, and Laos. The tiny hanging parrot of Southeast Asia is a parakeet that sleeps hanging upside down from a tree branch.
The Carolina parakeet once was common in the United States, ranging northward to New York and Illinois. The head of this parakeet was orange and yellow, and its body green. These parakeets have disappeared. Many of them were killed because milliners wanted their feathers for hat trimming. The last flock was seen in the Florida Everglades in 1904, but some of these parakeets may have survived until about 1920.
