The first cage-bred
budgerigars, were, as still are their wild cousins today, green birds with
yellow facial markings, black decorations on the wings and the top of head, and
a ‘necklace’ of spots beneath the bill. Today,
scientifically-inspired selective breeding has produced budgies in almost every
color except pink. A $500 prize awaits the lucky breeder who can produce the
first truly pink specimen, although, of course, such a phenomenon would, were
it capable of reproducing itself, be worth a fortune anyway. Altogether the
expert breeder can produce a list of over 130 clearly definable color varieties
in budgies.
From the owner’s point
of view, it is probably practical to reduce the almost endless permutations
possible to the following basic choices:
green, blue, violet or yellow birds, with either grey wing, cinnamon,
opaline or pied marking (a blue bird, with the conventional white or the fancy
yellow face).
As well as
conventionally marked budgerigars there are albinos and lutinos. Both these
types in their pure form have pink eyes and, because of their lack of pigment,
are devoid of dark stripings on the face or body feathers. Lutino budgies are a
clear canary yellow, and albino’s pure white.
Not all white budgerigars are necessarily albinos. Some ordinarily
dark-eyed types are so light in color as to appear pure white, but a careful
examination usually reveals tell-tale faint tracings of the darker wing
marking. All albinos are white, however.
In baby budgerigars a
striped marking, running from the back of the neck, extends over the crown of
the head to the top of the bill. With
their first adult plumage the youngsters moult out this barred pattern,
replacing it with a clear colored hood, yellow in the green-based types, white
in the blue variants.
A
glance at an adult budgie’s face tells its sex. In cock budgerigars the cere or
wattle, the area immediately above the upper bill, is bright blue, where as in
the hen bird, it is brown. Exceptions to this rule are immature babies, and the
pink-eyed pigmentless albinos or lutinos in which the cere remains pink in both
sexes throughout their life. When sexing very young budgies or albinos, it is
useful to remember that the cere is almost always more rounded in shape in the
cock bird, and that hens have a much greater tendency to nip when handled than
the cocks. A good budgie should be about 8.5 inches long and tip the scales at
around 1.5 ounces. When seeking a show champion, judges always look for a
curved body shape rather than an angular one, not too slim, nor yet too fat and
with the body tapering gradually to the tail.
Labels:
Budgerigar
