Budgies

The budgerigar is quite a common pet parakeet in the US and Australia. People call it informally budgie. What I was surprised to learn during our visit to the Red Center of Oz was that this small parrot is my conational now! And how I found out was through an amazing experience. We visited Central Australia during the late spring after a very wet winter, which is most unusual and it was also a winter that broke an almost 15-year long drought. To our surprise and delight, the red desert was filled with patches of green grass and lots of white, yellow and purple flowers. In areas where the vegetation included occasional trees, we saw clouds of yellow-green birds, hundreds of them, taking off when our car approached. Turning in the sun light, the wings of these birds changed color from yellow to green and back to yellow like a well orchestrated show. Zooming in the many pictures we took, we found out that the birds were budgies. We learnt then that budgerigars are the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus, and are found wild throughout the drier parts of Australia where the species has survived harsh inland conditions for the last millions of years. They are also related to my other favourite Aussie birds, the lorikeets.