The parakeet - the pet bird that we used to call as budgie, of scientific name Melopsittacus undulatus, is originally from Australia. Generally, there are two groups of Budgie, one of its types is the common pet budgie known as the American budgie and another type is the exhibition or modern show budgie known as English budgie.
But, wait, since budgerigars species origin from Australia, why are there English and American budgies, you may ask in curiosity. Yes, it may seem confusing, but with little explanation here, I hope it may help you to clear the mess.
Around the year of 1800s, budgies from grasslands Australia were brought into Europe by John Gould, a well-known ornithologist. They were bred in Europe, for different purposes, different business intention and for different goals to achieved. Sooner and later, mutations occur as the budgies nowadays come with variety of bright and eye-catching colours, different sizes and behavior.
Well, what are the most obvious difference of English budgie and American budgie? The size is the answer. As the budgies are fed for different purposes, the American budgie of smaller body size is the type most commonly seen in pet shops – this budgie is of similar body size to the Australia origin budgie; while the English budgie of bigger body size is commonly found in exhibitions and modern shows. In comparison, English budgie has their feathers grow over their eyes and larger crested head than normal American budgie, due to the food fed and bred.
Like its striking colours of feather, the English budgie has strong yet easily tamed personality. What a controversy, isn’t it? English budgie should be well taken care of and should not be placed as several amounts of female budgies in together. They may “attack” each other if they cannot get along well. But, there will be no worries if a few male budgies are kept together as they can go along well without much problem. Or without much quarrel I should say.
As for American budgies, although they come with strong personality under their cutie little size of body, they are easy be handle.However, though of its big body size, the English budgie has shorter lifespan than American, due to the huge mutation of English budgie bred for exhibition and show. A healthily fed American budgie may live for 8-10 years; while English budgie may only long for 2-5 years. Breeding the English budgie with the intention of creating stunning feather’s colours for shows, those people have cruelly caused budgie mutation, thus English budgie easily get all sorts of sick and illnesses, causing their short life-span.
