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Budgies are mimics, and will add all manner of sounds to their repertoire. The parrot family, including the budgie, can’t play back sound in the unnervingly accurate ‘digital-recorder’ manner of a Mynah bird or Lyre bird. They give everything a characterful parrot spin, a sound that comes straight from their unique personality.
With a background of human conversation, backed up by the various audio-visual devices in your home, you’ll be priming your budgie for talking. The sound of voices will be something the bird will take to naturally, if it has always been part of his environment. Sometimes his efforts will not be recognisable as human words – budgies take sounds and make them their own – but if you strike lucky, one day you’ll hear him say something intelligible. And even though you know he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of the words, that first “Hello Mango!” (or whatever you’ve taught him) is always a thrill.
A young budgie owner
Budgerigar Talking Ability
If your budgie lives with other birds (which is the preferable set up), it will be tricky to cut through the bird chatter and make a few human words stick. Even a mirror can be a distraction preventing him from hanging on your every word. It’s certainly true that single birds are in with a better chance of hearing exactly what you’re saying; but unless you can be there for them as constantly as a budgie companion, singletons will always miss the company of other budgies. It’s wired into their biology. It’s better to have a happy budgie than a talking one, if the choice has to be made.
Males are your best bet if you want a talking budgie, and younger ones (more than four months old) will take to it more readily. There is no guarantee of success, so don’t be too disheartened if your bird never gets to grips with speech. Some are wired for human sounds, some aren’t. For every Disco and Puck (celebrated talking budgies whose abilities can be marvelled at via an internet search), or any less impressive but still talkative budgie, there are several others who never mustered a single word, in spite of receiving lots of training and attention.
Comments
Doris, 4 August 2024
I have a 4 year old female parakeet and a 2 year old male living in the same cage in my bedroom. I let them out during the day but they don't leave my room. When they are in the cage together, the female chirps loudly and it is almost constant. I cannot tell whether or not she is upset with the fact that the male is in the same cage with her and it is a bit cramped or if she is just getting old and cranky. But I am concerned. I am in need of a "bird whisperer". To make matters more complicated, we have two stray female parakeets that were given to us to watch in the other room. I have not bonded with them that much, as my two "feathered kids" come first. I want them to be happy and secure.
Ralph, 17 May 2023
Hello, I need help with 'my' teo budgies! My mom bought them because they are wierdly cheap for two budgies-- So it were given to us and apparently they are 'both female' which i had heard of that taming two budgies at the same time is close to the impossible but same gender as well?! This is my first time having a pet budgies. So i need help onto how can i tame them both, They are always fighting and screaming. The yellow one - Aivery The green one - Aether The green one used to be dominant but now the yellow one is more dominant and are aggresive. Every time im opening their cage the green one will fly at my face and are only stopped by the cage bars. If taming them nor building bond with them are not possible i will just possibly suggest my mother to sell them perhaps.
William, 8 August 2021
Hi, It's more of a question about our budgie I hope that's alright!? For the past month or two our budgie "Skye" has been passing his stools ok, but in a cluster resulting in a clump of seeds and stick to his posterior! We encourage him to have a bath but it doesn't help, and the clump of waste seeds gets bigger and bigger until it gets to heavy and falls off! We're afraid in case we hurt him if we try to remove the waste! Does anyone know what's causing this and what can we do to help him pass his waste normally!? Thank you Regards
Gillian, 18 December 2019
Please can you help, my Budgie is banging his swing and hanging bell toy, why is this?
Raya, 6 June 2019
My parakeet is a male lonley bird he always hits his head when he fly's around will this damage anything?