Budgies, also known as parakeets, are the most popular type of pet bird around the world. They are friendly, social, and ready to play with their owners. They sing cheerful songs and are happy to greet the day each morning.
This makes them a great companion if you’re interested in having a pet. Budgies live between 5 – 8 years and usually benefit from being kept in pairs.
This article takes a look at some of the most popular budgie coloration types (morphs). A lot of selective breeding has been conducted with these birds, so there are many different morphs to choose from. We’ll go in depth about the different budgie color variations that you can buy today.
You’ll discover facts about how common each morph is, the way the traits are inherited, and how common the mutation is. Read on to discover more about budgie colors and ways to identify each morph type.
Basic Budgie Characteristics
Let’s start off slow before getting into the details. Budgies (Melopsittacus undulatus) are some of the easiest parrots to care for and learn about. They like to eat seeds in the wild but live best on pellets and fresh fruit in captivity. A bird usually measures 7 inches long and a little over 1 ounce.
Their wild origin is in Australia, where they fly from place to place in large flocks. On that continent, they live in all but the northern and western coasts. Most budgies are one base color on their chest, back, and underside.
They have another wing color, which may be patterned, as well as a head color with stripes. There are many more types of budgie characteristics and colorations than described on this list. But don’t worry – we’ll give you a basic run down so you’ll be able to understand more complex morph types.
13 Types of Budgies
While there’s only one species of budgie, there are a lot of budgie color morphs. The exact number of variants can depend on the classification used by different breeding organizations, and there are certainly more than a dozen recognized.
Among these, a commonly acknowledged list includes 13 distinct variants. These might be categorized based on color, patterns, markings, or unique mutations. Each variant adds to the vibrant diversity of budgerigars, contributing to their worldwide popularity as pets. Please refer to the specific list or breeding society guidelines for detailed information on each of these 13 variants.
1. Light green
This is the heritage coloration of the budgie. All other morphs stem from this one color pattern. Light green budgies have a light green belly and underside, a yellow head and neck, and a dark black back and wings.
The back and wings are striped with white or yellow from the head and neck. There are also accompanying dots of pigment around the neck and mouth.
Light green budgies exhibit dominant traits. They are yellow-based, meaning the color of their feathers has yellow in it. The alternative, white-based, is recessive, and leads to blue birds.
2. Dark Green and Olive
These two morphs stem from the darkness gene in budgie genetics. It’s all based on a ‘factor’ system. Without any darkness factors, the bird is a light green budgie.
With just one, it becomes a dark green budgie. The chest and belly is more vivid and slightly darker. Olive budgies have two factors.
This makes the chest and belly color muted and slightly toned down compared to birds with lesser factors. The head is still yellow, however.
3. Sky Blue
The sky blue budgie is genetically similar to the light green budgie. However, it is white-based instead of yellow-based. One or both of its parents could have been a light green budgie because the trait for white-based feathers is recessive.
Sky blue budgies have a bright sky-blue chest and belly, a dark black tail and back with white stripes, and a whitish head with a few blue dots. their beaks are yellow.
4. Cobalt & Mauve
Like the dark green and olive varieties of budgie, the sky blue and cobalt varieties rely on the presence of a darkness gene to cause the feathers to change in color. Cobalt budgies have chests and undersides that are almost periwinkle. They are white-headed and have black and white striped backs.
The mauve budgie is interesting because even though it has two factors of the darkness trait, it doesn’t look darker than the cobalt morph. Instead, it appears almost gray with a