Flying high: from budgie smugglers to a budgerigar brassiere

[Cardinal]

One hundred and eighty years ago today, a pair of budgerigars were taken from their native Australian shores and sailed into history.

Those little parrots became the first of their species landed live on English soil and would ignite a worldwide budgie boom.

Within decades of their introduction to the highest echelons of society by the great birdman John Gould, the little Aussie birds would become the most popular pet birds on the planet, passing from the hands of bluebloods to everyman.

https://indaily.com.au/arts-and-cul...m-budgie-smugglers-to-a-budgerigar-brassiere/

 

[GaleriaGila]

Fascinating, isn't it? Thanks for the history/smuggling/lingerie update!

 

[SailBoat]

Fascinating, isn't it? Thanks for the history/smuggling/lingerie update!

Its the same way they have smuggled their way into our Hearts!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I just came back from the local birdie store. There was a big flight with about ten budgies ( this place usually has a bunch of 'em) they had a couple gourds hanging and budgies flitting/chattering away and just having fun,going in and out of the gourds. Such busy little things


Jim

 

[Jasmine333]

Thanks for the info, very enlightening. I can see why Budgies are the most popular pet bird in the world. There isn't a day that goes by my Budgie, Oliver, does something to bring light into my life.

 

[Cardinal]

I just came back from the local birdie store. There was a big flight with about ten budgies ( this place usually has a bunch of 'em) they had a couple gourds hanging and budgies flitting/chattering away and just having fun,going in and out of the gourds. Such busy little things


Jim

The day I discovered the true majesty of Budgies was when I had been to Langkawi in Malaysia where they have a bird park. Here there was a huge gigantic walk in aviary that was nearly 100 feet tall and had a diameter of 500 feet or more. There were about 12 budgies in this aviary and I witnessed how they would descend to the ground to eat for a moment and then take off so quickly like an helicopter and fly the huge diameter of the aviary within a matter of seconds before descending on the ground again to pick up a few more morsels. Absolultely powerful and graceful flyers with amazing cohesion. Sadly because most captive budgies are kept in cages that are less than 1 metre in length or at the maximum in bed room or at the max living room sized aviaries, such behaviour can never be witnessed by most people. But what I saw at the Langkawi bird park was the closest I could get to seeing wild budgies in their swarms in the Australian outback.

 

[wrench13]

Funny how a species can become a fad. At the beginning to the middle 1900's, pocket parrots ( Brotogeris or BeeBee parrots ) were super popular and legal to import. SO much so that it was not considered financially feasible to breed them. When importation laws came into effect, these little parrots became hard or impossible to find. The most popular, the grey cheeked, does not breed readily in captivity, but many others do. We had a delightful one, a canary winged parrot, Max, and he was a great little guy.

But budgies are wonderful species and so varied and full of 'parrotness' its easy to understand their popularity still today!

 

[Jasmine333]

https://www.omlet.us/guide/budgie_guide/introduction_to_budgies/evolution/

This is another article with info also on the history of Budgies.