Budgerigars have become incredibly popular as pets because of their lovable and sociable personalities. They are often known by their nickname “budgies”, or by the name parakeet in United States. On top of that, they are highly clever birds, capable of mimicking the phrases said by their human companions. If you keep one of them as a pet, you might be interested in learning more about budgie’s senses, and that’s exactly what we’ll talk about in this article!
At the end, stay tuned for some fun facts about budgies to help you learn even more about this well-loved species.
Budgie senses
1. Sight
Budgies have excellent daytime vision. They can process more images per second than humans, and can even see into the ultraviolet spectrum! This opens up even more colors and subtle color variations to them, and helps them choose a mate with the most vibrant feathers.
Their eyes are located on the sides of their head. This means they don’t have a very good view of what is directly in front of them, but they can see a wide view on either side. While this may seem strange to us front-eyed humans, it is a big help in the bird world to have wider eyesight to notice if a predator is trying to sneak up on you. You may notice when your budgie is trying to get a good look at something, it will tilt its head and use one eye to see it.
Humans cannot dilate their pupils at will, it just happens as a response to the amount of light we are seeing. But budgies can! You may see them rapidly dilate their pupils from large to small several times in a row. This is called “eye-pinning” and can be used to reflect their mood. Feeling happy, excited or curious has been linked to eye-pinning, but also anger or fear. The more you study your budgie, you should be able to eventually use eye-pinning to help you understand how they are feeling.
2. Hearing
Although budgies’ ears aren’t particularly noticeable, they can hear sounds just like other animals. The ears of birds aren’t easily visible as they are small openings hidden beneath their feathers. However, these tiny holes play a major part in their ability to sense and distinguish various sounds in their surroundings.
However, their hearing isn’t considered one of their most highly developed senses, as they can only detect and recognize sounds within a limited range of frequencies, specifically between 200 and 8,500 hertz. This means that their auditory systems can perceive a wide range of avian sounds of very high pitches.
But when it comes to lower sounds, such as ocean waves or the rumble of a passing truck, they may encounter difficulty in hearing them. According to studies, unlike other birds like chickens, budgies can’t detect infrasound, which is a low-frequency sound that humans can hear.
3. Smell
