Budgie Communication

I've wanted for a long time to document budgie communication techniques. Earlier on the day I finally started this page, I watched an syndicated episode of the TV show "Northern Exposure." In this episode, the philosophical character Chris Stevens (John Corbett) was tasked by his significant other of the day to watch (baby sit) her pets including a budgie. The budgie died. Chris felt he could replace the deceased bird undetected with a "look a like." His rationale was that the parakeet was not an interactive companion and so the deception would be easy. He did and the girlfriend never noticed. How sad and how improbable.

Budgies like interaction and if humans are all that are available, they seem to be good enough. If a budgie doesn't interact after an adjustment period (we do look funny), something went wrong. I used to think that a Budgie had to be raised with humans to interact with them. I recently received a note from the family of Picolo (or Pico), a green Budgie, telling a wonderful story of his rescue from boredom in a previous life to a fully interactive life with them. I guess it is never too late to learn the social graces. Debbie, adoptive mother of Picolo, has been kind enough to contribute to this page.

Like many pets that have the opportunity, especially those with early exposure to reasonable humans, budgies are very sociable creatures that want and need interaction. There is no doubt in my mind that Birdie and some of his predecessors works/ed at communicating with the members of my immediate family and with at least two other now deceased 4 legged pets. Most of this is non-verbal but certainly not all. When we human's don't "get it", its probably not the bird's fault.

Debbie has offered the following observations of Pico: "He is very interactive but does not always want to come to us adults.
If he doesn't want to, he will lean back. He will, however, put one little leg up on our finger and peck with his beak without hurting us. He appears to be breaking the seeds in his beak. The person he interacts the most with is Daniel our son who can do just about anything and Pico won't run for cover in his cage, but will lean towards him and try to make himself taller to squawk at him sometimes... Must be a male thing."

I'd like to share some of Birdie's communication techniques, perhaps supplemented by contributions provided by those passing through this webpage. This is work in progress and you have the ball.

Some communication is obvious. Birdie uses both verbal and non-verbal communication, none of which utilizes English. Verbal can be series of sounds where mood can clearly be differentiated by perceived inflection that ranges from joy through contentment and finally what my sister calls "parakeet cursing." It's real. Non-verbal communication is clear by body motion. For example, Birdie likes to play with "toys", sometimes alone and sometimes with people. If I initiate play with the bird using one of his toys, and if he is interested, he will stay in intimate content with it or dance in and out of contact with the toy. If he doesn't want to play but is tolerant, he will bat it out of the way but stay put. If he really wants the meddlesome human to "play in the street", he will back or fly away.

Some specific examples of intentional communication follow:

Message	Method
Pick me up.	Lean forward; Sometimes means he only wants to peck affectionately on the human beak. He will back up with the appearance of a finger if this is the case.
Hold me in front of the big mirror	Lean towards mirror when human walks by
Just hold me	Sit content on finger perch with little motion.
Don't bother me.	Backing away, squawking, biting
Affection	Cleans human body hair, often eyebrows or hairs on hands and arms.
Affection, Pico style	Leans his body towards you and rubs his head on you (kinda like a cat). When I was young, we used to have budgie named Perky who would do the same thing.
Content	Coos (like a pigeon) , Jabbers (funny sounds); fluffed-up
Curious	Twists head at strange angles to examine object; takes reconnaissance flights. Seems to be common with all Budgies
Concerned	Feathers pressed closely to body (streamlined for flight)
Greeting; Joy, Comeback	Bird and purpose specific series of Chirps
Calling specific Human	Human specific sounds; often mimicking cutsy sound generated by that human on multiple previous occasions
I'll take that! Also, "Wonder what that tastes like?"	He does! We tend to loose interest in food he walks over anyway. (Never changes his socks)
Angry	Pico "swears" at you using a sound like an old diesel motor. It is very clear that he ain't happy! An angry Birdie also swears but to us it sounds like squawking.
Is anybody around here?	Another specific chirp. (Pico contribution)
Communication with the birds in the wild	Pico tries to copy the birds that he hears outside and they some times answer back.
"Look at me!"	When we are at the table and Pico wants attention, he will return into his cage and will run back and forth on the perch and chirp till we look at him.
Reserved for you input

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Jerold H Feinstein saftyrma@yahoo.com
Copyright Jerold H. Feinstein, PE 1997-00 All rights reserved; contact for permission to use
This page was last updated on 10/10/00 and is located at http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6056