budgie? Parakeet? what's the diff?

[fricksmom]

this is a question posed to me at my store. A customer was looking for an Australian Budgie. We sell "Parakeets".

Is there any difference?? Everything I looked up essentially told me that we americans call them parakeets, but they are Budgies.

 

[MonicaMc]

In America, the small budgies commonly sold in pet stores are lazily called "parakeets". All budgies are parakeets, but not all parakeets are budgies. The reason being is that the term "parakeet" means any small parrot with a long tapering tail. This can include budgies, cockatiels (which belong in the cockatoo family), conures, ringnecks, lovebirds (don't know how they might be classified as parakeets), grass parakeets, rosellas, and similar sized birds.

As such, I can say that my flock of 7 birds of 4 different species are all parakeets, but I do not own a single budgie.


So what you've read is correct!



Budgies are also called parakeets, shell parakeets, American budgies, pet budgies, normal budgies, Australian budgies...

Then there's a breed of budgie that is twice as large and has a regal look... these birds are known as English budgies, show budgies or exhibition budgies.


In America, "we" distinguish between the normal budgies and the larger budgies by calling one English Budgie (it was the English after all who "designed" these birds) and the other Parakeet (which I suspect may be a play on the less common name of "Shell Parakeet").



Otherwise, there's no differences!

 

[fricksmom]

ok. i thought so. The customer had purchased a "budgie" from a breeder. One passed away. she came to our store to get another budgie (i explained my understanding that they're the same bird...pot-a-to/pot-ah-to type of thing. )

 

[Pajarita]

Yes, parakeets is what Americans call the Australian budgie -there is also the English budgie which is the domesticated version of the species.

 

[Mike17]

No way would any budgie be called a "parakeet" in Australia, to my knowledge, in fact the word parakeet isn't used all that much as parrot appears to be preferred. Budgies are sometimes called "lovebirds" by older Australians, rather confusingly. Cockatoos are hardly ever called parrots or parakeets as we differentiate- the crest, of course. Cockatiels are a funny one, and many people, despite the crest, don't recognise they're a cockatoo so they are often described by name- weero in Western Au, quarrion in NSW/southern Qld, cockatiel elsewhere. Or simply as a "grey bird". As an aside, I've noticed many ads on Gumtree in Western Au for "Pink and Grey Galahs"... elsewhere they are just called galahs, they don't come in any other colours BUT pink and grey

I haven't had much to do with budgies- we have a tiny blue and yellow one, the guy we got him off had heaps of what he called "boofheads", otherwise known as "show budgies" sometimes "English budgies" (as suggested elsewhere, the British appear to have been the first to breed the type). I've never heard of an "American budgie" but I suppose anything's possible.

 

[Luke252]

No way would any budgie be called a "parakeet" in Australia, to my knowledge, in fact the word parakeet isn't used all that much as parrot appears to be preferred. Budgies are sometimes called "lovebirds" by older Australians, rather confusingly. Cockatoos are hardly ever called parrots or parakeets as we differentiate- the crest, of course. Cockatiels are a funny one, and many people, despite the crest, don't recognise they're a cockatoo so they are often described by name- weero in Western Au, quarrion in NSW/southern Qld, cockatiel elsewhere. As an aside, I've noticed many ads on Gumtree in Western Au for "Pink and Grey Galahs"... elsewhere they are just called galahs, they don't come in any other colours BUT pink and grey

Indeed, in Australia it's pretty much budgie only. I work at a very large pet store and deal with hundreds of customers a day, I get so many different names. Pretty much everyone calls budgies, budgies. I have had "quarrion" before, and everytime I tell people that cockatiels are actually cockatoos they are always so surprised. As for the galahs, never heard, "Pink and Grey Galahs" before. I usually refer to them as galahs, or Rose-Breasted Cockatoos.

 

[Mike17]

G'day Luke. I'm a former Sydneysider, now thankfully in the bush. Western Australians will often call galahs just "pink and greys". I dislike the term "rose-breasted" as it's unimaginative and boring, when the bird has a perfectly good name already, and I'm sure even Americans can manage "galah" A couple of years back I manned a "careers expo" stand at local high school, next to me was a Parks & Wildlife stand. The female rangers there told me that they preferred "Pink Cockatoo" for the Major Mitchell because the major was a "nasty man". I found it amusing that a prosaic, boring name was preferred over that of a 19th century explorer, just because he had alleged character flaws!

 

[Luke252]

G'day Luke. I'm a former Sydneysider, now thankfully in the bush. Western Australians will often call galahs just "pink and greys". I dislike the term "rose-breasted" as it's unimaginative and boring, when the bird has a perfectly good name already, and I'm sure even Americans can manage "galah" A couple of years back I manned a "careers expo" stand at local high school, next to me was a Parks & Wildlife stand. The female rangers there told me that they preferred "Pink Cockatoo" for the Major Mitchell because the major was a "nasty man". I found it amusing that a posaic, boring name was preferred over that of a 19th century explorer, just because he had alleged character flaws!

Yeah I heard about that before. I will pretty much always use Galah, but if someone dosen't like that then I use the Rose Breasted Cockatoo for that reason. Because so many people for some reason always refer Pink Cockatoo to the Major Mitchell's and not the Galah. But as I said, generally, I just use Galah.

 

[PetoftheDay]

It is funny, when people nominate their bird for Pet of the Day, I usually just take their word for it whether they refer to it as a "budgie" or a "parakeet" or as a matter of fact, a Gallah or a Rose-breasted Cockatoo. In that case, it usually depends where the human is from.

Sometimes on other sites, though, I have corrected people if they post a photo of a bird (usually taken at a zoo) with an obviously incorrect identification!

 

[MonicaMc]

I've heard the Major Mitchells also called Leadbeaters. Not sure why anyone would call a galah a "pink and grey"... otherwise I might go around asking for a "pink and white" or a "white and grey"! (galah mutations!)

I actually prefer galah over rose breasted. It's so long and drawn out! Plus, I'm quite amused about the recipes on how to cook a galah!



In the Philippines, I've seen people call lovebirds budgies or parakeets, which leads to a lot of confusion when people try to get information on their budgie/parakeet and it's a lovebird! Or someone breeds a lovebird and a budgie together and the "hybrids" look like one parent more so than the other... and it's really two lovebirds of different mutations.